The Old Woman

Now a very old woman, she spent her days sitting in a chair, her head lolling on her breast.  Once, she had been vibrant, the life and soul of the party.  She had loved to dance and she had loved to sing and people were drawn to her.  Everyone liked her and she gave people's spirits a lift by her kind words and hospitality.  She never spoke a harsh word to anyone...... except to her husband and daughter.  She couldn't remember why she had married him all those years ago, especially as he had never provided for the family as much as she would have liked.  He wasn't a 'white-collar worker' like her friend's husband.  As for her daughter.... well, she was a girl.  Enough said.  

She disliked girls and thought bitterly of all the boys she had lost.  Her firstborn son was stillborn and also her daughter's twin, a boy.  She resented the fact that the boy had died and not the girl.  She did have another son, though he was lost to cancer in his forties, but then there were her grandsons whom she thought the world of. 

And now she was very old, sitting in her chair, hearing only what she wanted to hear, waiting for death to take her.  Everyone was now gone, everyone except for her husband and daughter.  They would be with her, right to the very end..... though she would never thank them for it.