This post is submitted to Sunday Photo Fiction Challenge.

He did the math in his head. It was just over 60 years ago that he carrier her over the threshold in an overpriced semi-clean motel in San Mateo, California.

Then their respective careers took off resulting in them being transferred numerous times. After retiring they spent a good part of each year traveling abroad.  A dozen years ago they had travelled to China. She was past 70 then and still feisty and lovely in her own way.

Now her memory is failing. Her once beautiful dark hair is now nothing but white wisps. She can’t walk, and can’t stand up without help. Every little move can result in another fall and the possibility of more broken bones. She sleeps most of the day. Now she seems halfway gone mentally.

Modern medicine has kept her alive despite the fact she has expressed her desire to die. She is surrounded by teams of  doctors and nurses, medical students, respiratory therapists and countless other health care providers. She is too weak, and too meek to protest.

My fear is someday we will look back and say: “What in the hell were we thinking?”