BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATERS !

The prompt from writer’s talk was – Memoir for May . mom’s mini dream ( in 150 words ) . Here an account in first person ( 206 words ) and below is the published version ( 144 words ) in third person.

Memoirs for May – Mom’s mini dreams

Bridge over troubled waters

Shipra Shukla

When I got married to an army officer in 1954 the life of old people seemed very depressing. Retirement for men was early and the women never retired, they were just plain tired. When the children left the nest the two swiftly fell into a grey decline. Bored and lonely, one day merged into another and the sheer ennui of breakfast, lunch, dinner, sleep repeated ad nauseam was enough to age them more than their years.

I swore to myself this was not going to happen to us. I persuaded my husband to learn bridge with me and weekends found us in the card room of the Gymkhana club or the officers mess, playing a hand with other couples who soon became our friends. Many evenings became a happy routine of a couple of hands of bridge, a cup of steaming aromatic tea and chicken sandwiches. Bridge became synonymous with friends, food, laughter and fun. Another posting just meant slipping into the same pattern and more friends.

Fifty years have gone by and we never lack for friends because bridge became the bridge that connected our yesterday to our present and spanned the apprehensions of the troubled waters of the boredom and loneliness of old age.

As a new bride to an army officer my mother took stock of her surroundings and what she noticed was that the life of the retired folks was not what it was cracked up to be as the ‘golden years’ but rather a ‘grey decline’ as they walked the treadmill of breakfast, lunch, walk, dinner endlessly.

Perspicaciously she persuaded my father to take up a shared hobby and by a stroke of luck it turned out to be bridge. Thereafter, followed many joyful evenings in the club playing a couple of hands of bridge along with a cup of steaming, aromatic tea and moist, toothsome sandwiches.

Fifty years have gone by and they never lack for friends, fun and laughter. ‘Bridge’ became the bridge that connected their yesterday to the present, spanning the apprehensions of the troubled waters of the boredom and loneliness of old age.