Life of A mere Human

I was happily scrolling through Facebook newsfeed right after my examination thinking of the more than eight hours of sleep I will get. My phone beeped and my friend sent a message which read, “Hey babe, I have a bad news for you. Our friend Matthew passed away a few hours ago.” Shocked, unable to reply to that message I sat there quietly praying that it should be fake news or anything which would not hurt anyone.

I scrolled through his Facebook and saw all his friends and family members posting up pictures and captions of his demise and how he was a nice person when he was alive. Funny no one really cared when he was moving around as one of us. The fact that he is too young to go bothered me more than the idea that my own friend and campmate has passed on. Honestly, we were not so close. But something was clearly bugging me. Thinking about the upcoming exams, I decided to ignore the news and fell asleep quietly.

I woke up startled the next day around noon upon receiving a phone call from the blood bank from the general hospital. The nurse on the phone sounded really urgent as if, I failing to go there would cause 100 deaths. I quickly freshened up and sped up to the hospital. I have always been grateful for being blessed with the rarest blood group, O-. I have always been a sincere donor in the hospital because that was one of the charities which I could afford easily and does really valuable thing.

I ran up to the blood bank and did all the normal procedures of donating blood from filling up the mandatory form proving that I’m not gay and not a drug addict up till testing my hemoglobin level. Right when I entered another small room to check my blood pressure, the nurse said the name, Matthew. I was blur for a moment.

“Do you know Matthew? He is from the same uni as you are.”

“I know him kak. But he is not from my uni. We used to be schoolmates. We were friends back at school and kind of lose contact prior school life. Is everything okay?”

“Yes, girl. Everything is okay. The friend of yours passed away yesterday evening. Such a kind man he is. He donated all of his organs. Even you are now here because of him”

She added more shock to me. I was already not in a proper mental state and that woman in white uniform was not doing any good to it. I stayed quiet. Thinking what have I got to do with his organ donation procedures? I was reluctant at first but before the curiosity made me eligible to be the next organ donor, I wanted to find out.

“Kak, what I have got to do with that??”

“Well Dik, he is an organ donor with a rhesus negative blood group. Just like you. Somehow, yours matched him the best. But, we needed more than the already existing bloodstock to keep his organs fresh till the recipients have it.”

More chills ran down my spine. My eyes started tearing up. I did not want to hear any of this. I have always been proud of myself thinking I am one hell of a strong woman. Nope..nope..nope.. I am not strong at all. I just wanted to rip the blood tube out of my veins and ran out of the ward. She was continuously pouring more and more information about how his mother cried and how his entire family broke down upon his demise. I just controlled myself till I was done with my blood donation. It was smoothly done and the nurse stuffed my hands up with biscuits, glucose packets, and sugary drinks so I can restore the blood. I had no energy left for anything. I strapped my sandals and walked out rubbing the area she poked the needle with and stepped into the lift. I walked really slowly out of the hospital thinking how unpredictable life is. The previous night I was so ignorant about the lost. And nature brought me closer, way closer than I have imagined to the thing I ignored. Life is the most interesting game. No one knows what will be the next move nature has for us. Live every second of it. Spread love and kindness. Not preaching but just what I learned the hard way today.