NOTE: This series chronicles the wishes Tina writes in the Wish Journal she received from her aunt when she turned 13. To better understand Tina's character, be sure to read her other wishes in chronological order. Tina was at that age where it hurt to move. Ever since her mild stroke, she had been living in an assisted-living home. Each morning she woke up with the sun illuminating her hospital-like room. She would shuffle down to the Common Room on good days. But on days like today, she sat in the wheel chair beside her bed and watched television until a nurse came in with a meal or medicine. Once a week Gemma would visit with eight year old Vivian and three year old Max. Tina's heartstrings pulled knowing that her grandchildren would never know their grandfather because those memories of Mitch never left her. One could say she almost eagerly waited to be reunited with him, if it wasn't for the weekly visits from her grandchildren. She was having a painful morning, most likely because the grandkids came for a visit yesterday and Tina walked up and down the hallway and out into the garden with them, smiling and laughing at her prodigy. She would have a nap today, there was no doubt about that, and an early bedtime. For now, though, she watched the morning news coverage on the war, the flooding, the hurricane that hit the gulf, and the clear signs of climate change that silly politicians denied half her lifetime ago. She tisked at the state of the world. Then an idea formed in her head, one could tell from the way her head tilted and her eyes drifted from the television set to the cedar chest in the corner. With creaking bones and sore muscles, she used her feet to move the wheel chair into the corner and bent down into the cedar chest. She rummaged around the few precious belongings she was able to keep when the house was sold and she moved into the home. The Wish Journal was old. The leather cover was dried and flaking off in the corners. Some of the pages were warped with moisture and turning colors. There were enough pages for twenty-five wishes, but she knew she didn't need them all. Wish #18: I wish for a better planet for my grandchildren. I wish humankind would get their act together and think of each other instead of themselves. Maybe then Mother Nature would stop punishing them and the innocent.
I wish we could take care of our planet and work with it instead of against it. I wish for a better planet for my grandchild. I wish their children and their children and their children will know what fresh fruit tastes like and the feel of soft grass beneath their feet, and that the sky is blue and the taste of fresh, crisp water. I don't want them to ever go without the simple pleasures that make this life worth living. I wish humankind loved one another as much as they love themselves.
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