Olivia died yesterday.

Olivia died yesterday at age of 56, about a year after receiving the devastating news from her doctor of a disease that was ravaging her body.

Olivia was, and in my opinion still is, one of the most beautiful people anyone has ever met. She had her entire life to live for. She was excited. She was going marry the love of her life in October 2026, after decades of living alone. Her fiancé wasn’t at her bedside when she passed way in the company of her parents and siblings and indeed, some neighbours.

About a year ago while preparing dinner for Paul her fiancé, she was in the kitchen of her small apartment trimming a brisket, when she dropped the knife she was using. Thinking nothing of it, she picked it up again and began using it. She shook her head at her clumsiness and put it down to her excitement.

Paul had been abroad on business for the last month or so and was retuning that day, so she decided to make dinner for him.

Over the next few months Olivia noticed other accidents happening, such as losing power and the feeling in her hands and legs when she got out of bed, and on one occasion her knees buckled and she fell on the floor. Luckily Paul was there and picked her up immediately. He was concerned because he didn’t know Olivia to be a clumsy person. He suggested they visit a doctor, but she refused. However, the times she dropped things she was holding onto and her legs giving out increased not only severity, but in frequency. Finally, a few weeks later she acquiesced.

They at first visited her primary care physician and he suggested she see a neurologist. Again, she tried to brush her symptoms off but finally she and Paul visited a neurologist. He put her through a number of tests, after which he suggested she may have ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. But he wanted to send her to one of the top neurologists in the country. Paul insisted and they went. The diagnosis was confirmed.

“What does that mean to me?” she asked the doctor, her heart already in her throat. She held Paul’s hand as tightly as she could. The doctor’s answer was all over his face, he didn’t need to speak. Olivia nodded her head. “How long do I have?”

“Maybe a year or so,” he told her and then took a deep breath, “we will do everything we can to make life as comfortable for you,” he added.

Paul wasn’t ready to accept that diagnosis and suggested going to more doctors, but the diagnosis and prognosis was the same. Over the next few weeks Paul was at her side constantly. He didn’t travel anymore. He remained at her apartment to aid her in any way he could.

Her parents who lived about an hour or so away didn’t know, but her mother had an idea something was wrong when she declined to come over for dinner on the first Sunday of the month, as she had for years. One day, her mother decided to take things into her own hands and went over to her apartment and was shocked by what she saw. She was immediately angry with Paul even though he told her that she had banned him from contacting her parents. As her mother she felt she had a right to know the truth about her daughter.

“She’s not your wife yet!” she screamed and forced him to leave the apartment. “He maybe very loyal to you,” she told her daughter, “but I have the responsibility to make sure my daughter gets the best care.”

“There is no better care than what Paul has been giving me,” Olivia tried to plead with her mother to ask Paul to return but she wouldn’t have any of it. She called her husband who came over immediately and between the two of them, they put Olivia in their car and drove her to their home. Olivia by then wasn’t in any condition to put up much of a fight. They took her upstairs and put her into her old room and then set about making it as comfortable as possible. By then, Olivia found it difficult to walk steadily for too long. She accepted her parents and siblings care and never saw Paul again. He wasn’t allowed in their home. They were extremely angry with him believing that had they known of her condition earlier, then maybe they could’ve done something, even though logically there was nothing to be done. She was receiving the best medical care known to science.

As Olivia lay in her bed drifting in and out of sleep, she heard a train whistle in the distance, something she heard during her growing up years and cursed each morning because it woke her up at 3am and she found it difficult to go back to sleep. She could never understand why it would whistle at that time of the morning. But this time when she heard the whistle, she smiled. Now she knew why.

The following night she had a plan. Once the house was silent and asleep including her black lab who slept only in her room since her return, she with much effort climbed out of bed and scooted herself to the door and then down the stairs. The black lab watched her do all this, possibly knowing what she was doing and pulled her ears back and laid her head back down on the floor.

Once downstairs, Olivia grabbed her walker opened the front door and went outside. It was a warm July night. She could hear the train in the distance. She knew it would not pass without her. Inch by inch, she made her way to the back yard gate and then out into the fields which surrounded her home, and then down to the railway line. She could still hear the train whistle in the distance. 

Once she reached the train track, she threw her walker away and collapsed on the tracks smiling as she looked forward to her next life, in which she would no longer be in constant pain. As she lay there, a couple of minutes later out of the darkness appeared a figure who leaned over in front of her. It was a man. He had his hand held out to her.

“Grab my hand Olivia,” he said reassuringly, “you are still very much loved.”

At first, Olivia wasn’t sure whether to cry or be thankful, but the man was insistent and eventually as the train came closer and closer by the second, she reached out and grabbed his hand. He pulled her off the tracks with all his might and then carried her back to her house.

Just before he knocked on the door, he put Olivia down and she stood next to him. After a few loud bangs, the door opened and Olivia’s father stood there. He looked at the man and then looked at his daughter completely dumfounded. “I found her walking in the field,” he told him and gave her father her hand. He then turned and left before either she or her father asked him anything. Neither of them knew who he was.

On August 9, 2026, while surrounded by her entire family Olivia slipped away from earth with a smile on her face. She was finally at peace. The nurse who was present rubbed her mother’s hand to let her know Olivia was gone. Even though they had expected the end result, it was still devastating. As they lay their heads on her torso and began to sob uncontrollably, her father happened to look up and then turned his head. He had no idea why, but there in the doorway he saw the man who had brought Olivia home that July night. He was wearing the same clothes and he had a broad smile on his face. Olivia’s father nudged his wife who then looked up and saw the man as well. “Olivia is happy now,” he whispered across the room. “I will make sure she’s always happy and I will look after her,” and with that he turned and walked away. Olivia’s parents had never seen that man before the night he brought Olivia home. They have no idea who he could possibly have been. But what he gave them in the end was not only closure, but peace that they will see their daughter Olivia again.