Misfortune landed her here. According to her family's values, a destiny given by God.
She was weak and decrepit. Old, sick, and just not able to live on her own anymore.
The story went a bit like this:
She went to a routine doctor's checkup one afternoon. The man told her horrible news as she had blood work done two weeks earlier.
"Missus McClellan, you have Parkinson's Disease. Its in its early stages, so don't fret. I only ask you of one thing right now. And then, I'll handle the rest."
"What is it, doctor?"
"You have to move to a retirement home. As soon as possible."
She let her daughter take her cat and major belongings before moving into the new place, the Meadows of Monroeville. The retirement home was brand new, and the Ohio-bordering, Indiana small town was blessed with a boost of employment and prosperity.
While the patients faltered, more people moved to the town for work, including two stepsisters who had formerly lived in the Allen County seat, Fort Wayne.
One was tall, blonde, and had a more quiet disposition. The other was short, brunette, and was loud and passionate about the line of work she shared with her stepsister.
The blonde was named Melissa. She wore two things with pride more than anything else. Her Irish heritage and her collection of lipsticks, which Tonya, our decrepit old woman and Parkinson's sufferer, critiqued almost every single day.
Kelly was the brunette. Though not Irish in heritage, she boasted bright beautiful colors where she could put them on her navy nurse's uniform. She tried her hardest to serve the ones she cared for at the meadows and was loud and outspoken.
Despite their differences, Melissa and Kelly were not only sisters by marriage, but best friends as well.
Tonya stayed at the meadows for five long years, until the day she turned seventy-six, with Melissa and Kelly caring for her every step of the way.
She loved them, but she never showed it. She was cantankerous, like every elderly woman in a retirement home. Not only that, but she loved to show off the petunias in her window basket, even when Kelly and Melissa were really the ones who tended to them.
One rainy, humid June morning, Tonya was woken and began her usual routine. Melissa was the one in charge of her that day. Kelly was off of work.
"She's got a bad cold. I heard her coughing this morning... Bless her soul!"
Tonya was first given her morning medicines and fed a warm oatmeal breakfast by Melissa. Then, she was given a quick sponge bath and got dressed in clean clothes before she was wheeled out to the lobby.
"Now, just stay right here while I get everything ready for your blood pressure test. It shouldn't take long." Melissa explained, while Tonya looked at her.
"You look pale as a ghost." Tonya said back. "That color's too red for you."
Melissa wasn't taken aback and laughed. "You said it the last time I wore it! I'll be back in a few. Just sit tight with a few of your friends."
"I don't have friends."
Tonya tried to, but her eyes wandered as they always did. And they landed close to a group of three other women playing chess.
The women were almost instantly aware of her stare and immediately began heading over. One walked on two feet. The other walked with a walker and the last, most mysterious one wheeled herself over with a wheelchair.
The healthiest one was also the youngest. She had red, graying hair and wore lots of cheetah print. From the looks of it, nothing was wrong with her. Nothing at all. Tonya would have to dwell deeper into that.
It also seemed these women formed a clique, a group, and that this woman was the leader. Just like the much younger people confined to care together, the high school students.
The one with the walker was about Tonya's age. She was healthier than Tonya still, and it looked like her legs were injured in some freak accident, and that she was getting back in her feet. Literally.
Finally, the woman in the wheelchair. She was at least ninety and had many wrinkles to show her age and wisdom. She seldom spoke to anyone and was very taciturn. She was lucky to be alive, the way Tonya saw it. But then yet again, so was she.
The red head, the only one with colored hair, spoke up.
"We want to show you something."
The younger, yet old woman wheeled Tonya to their chess table and took out a bag. A bag that would normally hold marbles.
"How old are you, Tonya?"
"Seventy-six."
"Great. You'll need six!"
She opened the back and counted in her hands six opal colored pills.
They were created in a lab at Yale University by a woman named Jane Solomon. She was a smart, smart, and most likely the smartest person there. More so than any male colleague. Due to her gender, they never noticed her true skill and left her invention alone. Now, at least ninety, she watched as one more and one final person was to be included in the test run.
"Take this tonight with your other pills. Take two a night if you forget. I promise this'll the best deed someone's ever done for you!" Harriet, the red haired woman told her.
"Oh.. All right. Thank you." Tonya held the opal pills in her hand, before putting them in her pocket as best as she could.
Before she could think of anything else to say, Melissa walked in and wheeled her away.
"I knew you had friends. I just knew it."
Tonya only scoffed at her, marveling in the beauty of the opals in her pocket.