It was on the third morning that Allison finally decided to talk to Nancy, who had checked into her bed and breakfast, a couple of nights ago. She had been worried on seeing the lost look on Nancy's face and unable to hold back, approached her, "Hello, I have noticed that you are all alone, are you fine?" 

"Thank you, but I would prefer to be left alone."

She was curt to the point of being rude, and Allison almost turned away, but something stopped and suppressing her feelings that she was being nosy and persistent, she asked, "I am sorry, but something is clearly troubling you and I am..." 

Angered, Nancy blurted, "I just received my reports, I have cancer and will most probably not survive this year."

At Allison's stunned silence, Nancy retorted, "Well, are you not going to give me advice, or words of sympathy or feel sorry?"

"No, I am going to tell you a story."

Ignoring the look of surprise that flitted on her face, Allison sat down and started, "Twenty five years ago, there lived a couple in this very house, let us call them Jason and Diana Parker. They were your regular couple, working hard at jobs to provide a good living for their only daughter, we will call her Mary, and despite their financial difficulties, were happy with their life. They had scrimped and saved for this house and the day they finally bought it, they were the happiest. It was as though nothing to mar their happiness, but then what is life without a twist?

Diana was the first to notice the changes in Jason, he appeared moody often and retreated to periods of sullen silence. She initially accepted his explanation of stress at work but then a chance meeting with Jason's colleague let her know that there was no change in his work schedule. The fact that Jason had lied troubled her to such an extent that she started to become suspicious of everything and everyone, till she finally confronted him one day.

It was an ugly scene, with shouting and cursing, ending with Jason walking out of the house in the middle of the night. Diana was equally upset. Even when Jason did not return after three days, she refused to go to the police. Days turned to weeks, but Jason never returned.  Her anger turned to worry and then to fear till she heard a rumour of him being seen with another woman, it destroyed her and her love turned to hate. Since Diana had neither much of educational qualifications nor any work experience, she had to turn their home into a bed and breakfast. The divorce which she had taken for financial reasons rankled her, watching strangers and newly married couples stay in this house irritated her. Her only solace was the one she found in cooking and baking and she busied herself in those jobs, even shifting from her bedroom to the tiny one beside the kitchen.

Her eight year old daughter bore the brunt of her mother's hate and mistrust of men, for as she grew up, her choices in men were always wrong till she too ended up bitter and lonely like her mother.

Five years ago, Diana passed away, the doctors said her heart could no longer carry on. The daughter was furious, and blamed her father for her mother's life and death. So much so that she wanted to destroy all evidence of her father. Her mother had never thrown anything that belonged to her father so there were a lot of stuff for Mary to wreck her vengeance on. But then even discarding those stuffs and burning her father's clothes did not give the closure she hoped so she finally decided to hunt down her father.

Mary did what her mother should have done twenty years ago, file a missing person's report. The police department was skeptical and uninterested, wondering why someone should show interest twenty years later and told her not to keep any hopes."

When Allison stopped, Nancy who skeptical and irritated at being a forced audience, was now so absorbed that, despite the visible pain on Allison face, could not stop herself from asking, "then what happened?" 

Allison spoke so softly that Nancy had to lean forward to catch her words, "It was an almost impossible case but then the department got a lucky break, if you could call it that. I...Mary had given them her father's dental records and three months later they found an exact match for the same.

They matched the dental records to a John Doe case. It was a man who had shot himself to death and had no form of identification on him, only a letter addressed to his wife and daughter."

Nancy could make out that the tale would have no happy ending, for Allison did not even try to control her tears, yet her curiosity did not abate and she whispered, "What did the letter say?"

"He apologised for the step he was going to take, but then he could see no other way out. He had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and given six months to live. He could not watch his family see him suffer so he decided to take this way out."

There was silence as Nancy struggled with the revelation and a niggling doubt as to how Allison and Mary were related, though it must have shown on her face for Allison continued, "You might wonder how I know about them, I am that daughter, my name is Allison Mary Parker. Now that you know my story, tell me something, do you agree with what my father did?"

Nancy was unsure how to answer, a part of her agreed with what Jason did yet she could not deny that Jason's actions had also put Diana and Mary through a lifetime of pain and uncertainty. She could also not avoid the nagging voice that admonished her that she had been embarking on a similar course and would also put her family through similar grief. 

"I am not sure but then if you think from Jason's point of view, maybe he wanted to spare you..."

"No, Nancy, nothing justifies what my father did. When he walked out on us, he must have been prepared to kill himself and he must have been deluded if he though that it saved us pain. It left us with a lifetime of agony. My mother could never trust another man and she tortured herself wondering what happened to him. I have taken five years to accept that he is gone, to accept that his choice was a wrong one, that he died alone and afraid, but I need more time to forgive him for leaving without saying goodbye. He stole our right to say goodbye, he took away our right to grieve. Tell me, is that how you want your family to remember you? Is this going to be your legacy to them?"

Shock made Nancy shrink into her chair and unable to answer any of those questions, she pushed her chair back and rushed into her room. As she collapsed into the bed, she could not stop herself crying and questioning herself, 'how had things come to this point. Why was life so cruel to her?'

Nancy had her share of struggles and strife during her childhood, having watched her parents argue, fight and finally divorce each other, with she and her brother spending weekends at her father's house. Yet the disaster of the only marriage she had witnessed did not stop her from dreaming of  it all, love, marriage, kids, house. Life had blessed her, she had met Arthur in the last year of college, fallen in love with him and married him once she graduated. Their storybook romance continued with the birth of their daughter followed by a son, three years later. On Nancy's twenty eight birthday, they moved into their own house, a two storied house with a large yard that gave her enough space to grow the garden she always wanted. Her husband loved her, her children adored her, her colleagues admired her, her garden had the loveliest blooms; it was a perfect life.

Three months ago, a routine medical check up had turned her life upside down. She refused to believe the prognosis; cancer was what happened to others, not to her, not to one who came from a family where there were no major illness. Her mother, in her early sixties did not even suffer from the commonly accepted ailments of high blood pressure or diabetes. Nancy had resorted to multiple tests and visits to five different doctors, all of whom returned the same prognosis, she was a marked woman, one who had very little time left.

Nancy had returned to the first doctor who then detailed out the possible course of medication and treatment, one which left her in fear and in tears. She was terrified of pain, angry that her cancer was rare and undetected till it was too late and desperate to spare her family the agony of watching her suffer. In the end, she finally decided to run away rather than face life's latest offering, deluding herself that she was doing her husband and children a favour by hiding her illness and the inevitable suffering it would bring on them all.

However, now after hearing Allison's tale, her courage ebbed away, leaving sorrow in its trail. She squeezed her eyes closed, wondering how she could survive without seeing her family, the past three days were hell. She missed Arthur, missed her daughter's talks and her son's excited babble. She missed her friends and colleagues and she missed her garden, the feel of the soil, the soft leaves and the fragrant flowers. Most of all she missed who she was and she felt lost. 

The tears came thick and fast and she wondered how she could ever go back when the door to her room banged open and she heard his voice. Nancy froze, it must be her imagination, 'there was no way Arthur could be there, how did he find her out?'

The next instant, she found it to be no illusion as his strong arms wrapped round her and his husky voice whispered, "Whatever it is, we will face it together. Take your time to let me know but do not disappear like this, never again."

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Allison looked out of the window to where Arthur and Nancy sat at the garden bench, heads bent together, they made a lovely picture despite the dark news they had received, they were together and a family together could work miracles. She felt it worth taking the chance of informing Arthur as to Nancy's whereabouts, it was Arthur's televised plea for information that had prompted her to strike a conversation with Nancy, for she had wondered why Nancy would want to run away from her family. She smiled to herself, even if Nancy did not live longer than what the doctors predicted, she would have a chance to make new strong memories, ones that would give her family strength to carry on after her death. 

Nancy battled her cancer with the love and support of her family, to live for eight years, long enough to see her daughter attend her prom and watch most of her son's high school football matches. It was a tough battle but then being with her family gave her strength to fight; she died in peace knowing that even in her absence her family would be together and that she would be remembered with love. 

After all, life is nothing but a beautiful struggle, and the winners are those who battle despite the odds they face.

Word count 1950

This is my entry for prompt by adultfiction.

Prompt: Life, love and lemons

Every time we hear bad news, it seems impossible to deal with it but we fight and we go through them.For this contest, we would like you to think of a situation, an obstacle in a person's life and write a storyabout a character overcoming it. 

The Prompt: "Through the battles that seemed impossible..."

The story had to be written in a maximum of 2000 words.

July 22, 2019 - and this story came in third, which means a lot.