Life's best masterpiece

Once upon a time, there lived two artists called Sue and Johnny. Now, both of them shared an apartment and were painters. Suddenly, Johnny became bedridden with pneumonia. The disease took many patients in the city and infected others. When the doctor came to visit Johnny, he told Sue, “The condition is quite bad. Johnny seems to have lost all will to live.” Upon hearing this, Sue brought her painting materials and other things from Johnny’s room. Sue made some soup, but Johnny refused to have any. “Five” she muttered. When Sue asked what Johnny meant, she explained. “There are only five leaves left on the tree now. When the last leaf falls, I shall go with it.” Hearing this, Sue panicked. She went to Mr. Behrman, another artist and a drunkard, who was also their neighbour. "What?” bellowed Mr. Behrman. “What is this nonsense? I haven’t painted my masterpiece yet! We have so much to do,” he yelled angrily. After all, he wanted his friend to live happily. With a brief conversation, Sue returned and began working. She worked all through the night and kept a watch on Johnny. Over the next few days, it rained terribly. Hail storms and thunderstorms came and went, but the last leaf on the tree held on stubbornly. Every day, Johnny would look out, and wake up the next day to see the same stubborn, lone leaf on the empty branches of the tree.

Then, one day, Johnny said to Sue, “I realize now that I have been a bad girl. I will not lose hope easily ever again. Living a life is hard and I will continue to do so, the last leaf taught me many things. Best of all, it taught me to live!” Soon the doctor came to visit, and he had nothing but good news. Before going he told Sue, “I have another case in this building. His name is Mr. Behrman. The man was found drenched and his materials were outside in the rain. His condition is not well, he might not live.”

Some days later the news of Mr. Behrman’s passing came. Johnny, still recovering, was informed by Sue. She also told her, “The last leaf on the tree was, in reality, a painting. One night, Mr. Behrman painted it, so that you could live and find your will to live. The last leaf is his eternal gift to you and his final masterpiece.” Johnny never gave up after that!

Reflection by Dr Anjana 

Reflect on life and see how easy giving up is but when you choose to stand and fight for yourself the World comes to support you. Difficult times come and go but what stays is our zeal to live and bring a smile to our loved ones. It's ok to accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. Remember we need to learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is NOT to stop questioning.

"The irony of life is we believe we live only once, WRONG we live everyday but we die only once."

Let’s go ahead in life and not feel hopeless just simply get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If we go out and make some good things happen, we will fill the world with hope, and we will fill ourselves with hope" because just three things are needed to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.