As Long As You Are Happy... It Will Be Okay For Me...

Claire woke up from sleep, finding that she didn’t have the strength to get up by herself. Her mind was blank like a piece of plain paper. She didn’t know how long she had been sleeping, she felt like it had been over a century already. Breathing-aiding machine was still aiding her in her breathing, she tried so hard to get up, but her body and legs just wouldn’t let her do that. A man beside Claire, with his head lying on her bed was awakened by the sounds she made. The man looked up, he then burst out in tears, “Nurse! Nurse! She…”

Claire rubbed her eyes before she looked at that man properly: sunken eyes, gaunt, white temples, carved wrinkles between the eyebrows. She felt the sudden and warmth and closure inside her heart, “Papa…” she called out in a very light voice. The man was stunned for a moment, suddenly he hugged her. “You’ve finally woken up. Do you know that you’ve been in a coma for four years?” the man began to sob while his tears dropped onto Claire’s face.

Claire’s body was still weak and her beautiful face seemed to be a little pale. She could not remember a thing except her father, but she learnt from him stories about herself - She worked as a banker and she had parents and a fiancée who loved her very much. Just a month before their wedding, a security guard who worked at the same bank as Claire robbed the bank. Claire was on duty with another colleague when the robbery occurred. She and her colleague called for help, resulting in two shots fired towards them. Her colleague died instantly on the spot while she was shot in the stomach, but she was still able to fight back with the security guard. Unfortunately, her head smacked onto the counter window during the struggle, and she lost her consciousness. After that the incident, Claire was sent to the hospital for surgery. It lasted for about six hours, doctors were trying their best to save her life and they succeeded. But due to the heavy impact on her brain during the robbery, she went into a coma. Her parents were there in hospital to hear about the news too. Her mother was too upset that when she was on her way home, she was knocked down by a car, leaving the world with much regrets.

Those few years, Claire’s father searched everywhere for medical help to wake her up, eventually Claire was transferred to her current hospital, but the result was still the same – the chance of her waking up was almost impossible, and even if she woke up, she might lose her memory. Despite the slim chance, her father did not give up, instead he borrowed money from his friends and relatives in order to continue on the treatment for Claire. To prepare for the expensive medical bills, he even sold the house, but the money depleted very fast also. In order to wake Claire from her coma as early as possible, he did not spend much on himself. He worked at a construction site during the day, and when night came, he would go to the hospital to take care of her. He would eat bread when hungry and drink water when thirsty; when tired, he would take a nap beside Claire’s bed. Long term of malnutrition and fatigue had resulted in his body becoming weaker and weaker, but he had strong faith that one day Claire would open her eyes and he would be the first one beside her the moment she opened her eyes.

After a month of recuperation, Claire was discharged from the hospital. The problem she was facing at the moment was that she could not speak clearly, so she had to stay in the city and go for medical checkup and treatment regularly. Her father rented a house in the city and he took care of Claire during daytime while during night time, he would go out to collect cans and glass bottles to exchange for a little income.

Claire was getting better and better each day; she learnt to wear clothes and cook by herself. Her father later bought some Primary school textbooks and taught her little by little. Not long after that, she was able to read and speak clearly. Her doctor was surprised by her rate of recovery when she went for her regular checkup. Touched by her act, the doctor promised to introduce her to work as a cleaner at the hospital in order to reduce the burden of her family.

After six months, Claire’s body had totally recovered. Besides that, she learnt a lot of knowledge and she even attended night classes at a college. She wanted to find a good job to repay her father. She was a hardworking cleaner at the hospital; in her free time, she even helped to take care of some of the patients at the hospital.

Adam, a young doctor at the hospital was touched by her gentleness and kindness and he soon got attracted to her. He discovered that she was still studying, so he moved all his study materials and notes he used during his University to the hospital for her, he even guided her in her study. After getting along for some time, Claire felt that Adam was humorous, kind and also intelligent. She felt that she was happy to be with him, so she expressed her feeling to him.

If Claire did not go out with Adam that day, their relationship would go very well and they would be married: During one Valentine eve, Adam and Claire went out together during their break time as always. They walked along the streets and passed by a bank. Adam could not stand his excitement as he was going to propose to Claire the day after, so he decided to buy her a wedding ring on that day. He immediately took her with him to the bank. There were not many people inside the bank. Claire had never been there since her recovery, she remembered that her father always avoided passing by banks when bringing her out. The hall inside the bank had very few people; only two or three people were handling their financial matter. Claire looked around, something deep inside her memory was triggered. It was then she felt a sudden pain in her head, she could not help herself from thinking, she remembered the robbery, but suddenly it was gone from her head again. She felt dizzy; she lost her consciousness.

Claire opened her eyes and found out that she was already in the hospital. She saw Adam’s anxious eyes. Adam held her hands and said, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought you to the bank. I’m really sorry…” He brought her home later, worried about facing her father. Claire knocked on the door, her father opened the door. He hugged Claire as soon as he saw her, asking her, “Claire bear, where’ve you been? I was so worried that something had happened to you. Did you have the headache again?” It was then he saw Adam and Adam stepped forward to shake hands with him. Claire introduced him to her father. Her father did not say a word, turned around and went into the house. Adam held Claire’s hands and walked into the house together. Inside the house, Adam told Claire’s father that he loved her and he would like to be with her for the rest of his life. Claire’s father asked him to go home first as he would like to consider the proposal. After accompanying Adam out of the house, Claire saw tears in her father’s eyes. He asked her, “Do you really love this boy? Is he dependable?” Claire looked down and nodded. She heard her father sighing, “Ok, be prepared to marry then.”

Everything was going on as planned, Claire had happy a smile on her face every day. She and Adam were searching for new house, buying new furniture as their wedding day was approaching. Just before the wedding day, Claire found out that her father was nowhere to be found since that morning. She thought he had gone to the construction site, she then waited for him to come home, but he did not. She went into his room, hoping that there was a note that he left to explain where he would be going; but instead she found an envelope with “Dear Claire bear” on it. She frowned, she hesitated before she opened the envelope.



Dear Claire bear,

I believe that you’re feeling very happy at the moment as you can finally put on every girl’s dream dress – the wedding dress and live your life happily ever after. I feel happy for you too from deep inside of my heart. I had this same happy moment once upon a time, unfortunately it didn’t last long. Promise me that you are going to take very good care of yourself, do not think about the things happened before. As long as you are happy, I will feel happy also. When you are reading this letter, I am already at somewhere far from you. Do not try to find me, I will only be a burden when I stay with you and I don’t want that. Adam is a great man, I truly believe that he can bring happiness to you. I will be blessing you from somewhere far.


Your father that has always loved you,
“Brock”






Claire held the letter tighter and tighter in her hands. “Brock, Brock,” the name repeatedly appeared inside her mind, she vaguely remembered, Brock was actually her husband before she lost her memory. After her memory got back, she went back to her hometown. She found her old house – a house that was given to her by the bank she worked. Her parents died in a car accident when she was young. Later she worked very hard to get herself a job as a banker. The bank offered her a house to live. After the incident when she smacked onto the window and she was in a coma, her bank did not take back the house, they hoped that Claire would wake up someday. Returning to the house, she opened the door and she saw a wedding picture of her and Brock at her first sight. Brock looked so young and handsome in the picture, he was smiling at her.

At that moment, Claire realized that four years of hardships could actually make one old. Her tears slowly fell, she felt that a sword had pierced through her heart…