She was young and
bright, probably the smartest child in her village. But misfortune doesn’t care
about the strengths of one’s faculties. It may try to challenge that strength.
Her’s was challenged at the young age of 14, when her father had a stroke. Her
family spent all the savings they had to try and get him cured. The efforts
helped him live a couple more years, but at the cost of them losing all the
savings and the house they were in. When she was 15 she had to take a job as a
janitor in the nearest town’s hospital that she once had dreamed of serving as
a doctor.
Not only excellent at
studies, she had been very committed and diligent too. She couldn’t be the
doctor she wanted to be, but she sure served the patients in the hospital with
nothing but complete dedication. She would spend long hours with the doctors
and nurses curing the sick and the hurt. She would console the tired and
concerned family members of the patients and comfort the patients with her
uplifting stories and sunny demeanor. Not to mention she was the most popular
person the hospital ever had in its staff.
When she was 20 and
training to be a nurse while still doing her other staff duties, her life had
to see yet another turn. The night was dark and cold and it was snowing very
heavy. She was working in night shift. That night emergency was short of staff
as some doctors and nurses couldn’t make it to the hospital due to the roads
being blocked by snow. Around 1 AM she heard some commotion in the
waiting area. It was a patient in his late twenties. He came to the town for a dinner, and met with an accident while
returning; the staff nurse told her. He had received bad wounds, especially the one
on the forehead, which continued to bleed. He was losing consciousness while
waiting for his turn to be taken in. We should take him in, she whispered. But
the two doctors are attending other emergencies, so what can we do? The nurse responded.
He may bleed to death, and I cannot let this happen, she replied.
Next minute she was
pushing the guy on a wheel chair towards the triage room, along with a very
reluctant nurse. A few minutes later, the guy was given some first aid, which
helped stop the bleeding. The vitals were taken and things looked better. The
doctor when returned, applauded her courage and mentioned that the wound was
not too dangerous, but the loss of blood and the cold temperature could have
been fatal if she had not shown presence of mind and taken initiative. Her
nurse training was fast tracked and a 2 months later she was a proud nurse in
the hospital.
Around the same time she
received a note from the guy. He was son of a millionaire industrialist. Also
his father’s run charity had a chain of hospitals for the underprivileged and
he was the managing director of that charity. For her courage and zeal, he had
offered her a job in one of his hospital. And in a few months he was so fond of
her mannerism, her personality, her attitude and her knowledge that he proposed
to marry her. A proposal she could not say no to.
A true Cinderella story.
She held on to her courage when the fate showed her no mercy and the same
courage made her the heiress of a big empire. Everyone was happy for her
and the story of her courage and attitude was told in the small town she had
lived as a child.
I knew her well as we
had both gone to same school as kids. And I had witnessed her life changes very closely.
Few days ago I was
travelling through the same small town and I stopped by the small coffee shop
near the town square to meet an old coworker, and there she was, sitting on a
corner table and sipping her coffee. How are you madam? I greeted. She looked
at me and the polite smile turned into a wide grin at seeing a child hood
friend. After the pleasantries were exchanged and pastries ordered, I asked
her, “What are you doing these days?” I am studying medicine, soon to be a
doctor she proudly said. Also I am back at my old job as a nurse in the same hospital.
The last line surprised me, studying medicine was fine, but the heiress working
as a nurse? I left him, she said reading on my face the question that was
raising in my heart. What? Why? I asked, voice raised out of disbelief.
No don’t take me wrong, he is really a great guy. He did love me; but all the time we were
together he never seem to remember what he married me for. But also he never forgot what
my social and financial status was when we first met and neither did he let me
forget it. I thought I married the guy who loved what I did and appreciated
what I could become in future but in fact he married the hospital janitor who showed courage beyond compare. I like him a lot but it felt very odd as a janitor living
in a palace wearing queen’s robes. So I decided to be what I always wanted to
be, and to work to be that. And here I am, honestly no regrets.
No regrets, I could see
that clear on her face. She was confident as ever. She was the true Cinderella,
not the one that the prince would marry just because the shoe fits, but the one
prince would see as his equal if not more.
For the prince, he is the one who lost in this story, he lost the one who had saved his life and the one who
could save many more.
For me, I learnt a big
lesson; in life whoever you meet or deal with, your family, your spouse, your
friends, your coworkers, your children etc. Make sure that you always respect what they are capable of.
Epilogue: A few minutes after when I was seeing her off the coffee shop my
friend and ex-coworker showed up. He was obviously late for our meeting, and
his face gave signals of apology under the tired eyes. Who is she? He asked out
of curiosity, and I told him the whole story. Oh, I see, Thanks. He said,
to a surprised me, why thanks? Then he cleared, you see our software vendor was having
trouble with his employees last year. We found that they were underpaid and
unappreciated, however a high employee churn lead to him folding the business
and we ended up directly hiring his entire team of coders. Higher salary and good
benefits made those guys work wonders in first few months, but after one quarter performances
started declining and now we are fearing even worse churn that our vendor had
faced with this team. I was always wondering what went wrong, and came here to
seek your counsel, but your Cinderella showed me the way. Now I know what went
wrong and I think I can fix the problem. So Thanks, he chuckled. We both
smiled. We both have learnt that Cinderella stories can teach good business
too.
