Old people make me sad. No offense, I like them in their nature, but sometimes they remind me of the brevity of life, how temporary everything is, how every beautiful flower will fade into a withering stalk. But then a visit to the hospital changed everything for me, for then I realised some of the most beautiful things on earth—if only you look closely—do not have an expiration date.

While I was waiting for my turn, an old lady with a fluff of cottony white hair on top of her head came wobbling out of a consultation room, slowly plodding on toward one of the waiting bench outside the room. I was only starting to avert my eyes in pure sadness when an old man—face so wrinkled I thought he had a dried-up apple as a face—stood up and took the old lady's stammering arms and led her to their spot in one corner of the hospital.

Such a sight to behold! A sight so beautiful I almost cried with joy and despair, feeling two contradicting feelings at the same time. While internally I celebrated the fact that true love exists regardless of time and age, I lamented at the knowledge that those two will one day cease to exist, leaving behind a ghost of a love story that no one would have ever noticed to write and cherish about.

Thereupon, I went home thinking about it all day longand put my thoughts onto paper, once I sat down at my desk in the evening.