The transmission of her car has given out. Every day, she hitches a ride to work because she is broke.
She works hard. Too hard. And when she's not cooking in the kitchen of the medical rehab, delivering trays to patients, she’s a full-time single mother.
Sometimes, her kids visit her at work. They get thirty minutes for supper. Her breaks are never long enough.
The strain of day-to-day living is wearing her thin. She is overworked, underpaid, vehicle-less.
One day, she meets a patient. An old man.
In the three months he’s been in rehab, nobody has seen him move or speak. Most days, he faces the window with his jaw slung open. Empty eyes.
She's delivering food to his room. Her emotions get the best of her. She collapses on a chair and has a meltdown.
She bawls because life is unfair. Because a busted car sits in her driveway and she can’t afford to have a mechanic look at it.
The old man stirs in his wheelchair.
His facial muscles move. And in a few moments, he looks like a
man who's never suffered a traumatic brain injury.
He stares straight at her. His eyes sparkle.
And in a voice as clear as a bell he says, “God sees you.”
Then.
His face goes slack. His eyes become hollow. His mouth falls open, he begins to drool again.
All day, she thinks about him and his words. In fact, she thinks about it so much she can't sleep.
The next day, she's delivering food again. She speaks to him.
He doesn’t answer. He is completely unalert. So, she tells a few knock-knock jokes.
His face cracks a slight grin.
It moves her so much that she hugs him until she is crying into his chest. She tells more jokes.
She eventually gets a strained laugh out of him.
Then, he surprises her. He hugs her with rigid…