...“Clara!” The retired schoolteacher determinedly interrupted this brief exchange by getting up from her seat. “May I make an announcement?” From behind her back she produced a bunch of bright red flowers which she had carefully concealed until the right moment. “We found out that today is your birthday…
”At this, Clara allowed her tired arms to flop and smiled shyly: somehow or other people always got to know! She herself was so busy she’d almost forgotten about it - there was no time for anything but work. “We all of us wish you good health and happiness!” said Zoya Sosnova, giving her the flowers. “That poem I read out - I’ve dedicated it to you…” she went on, blushing like a girl.“
Thank you so much!!” said Ozertsova with genuine gratitude, clasping the sweet-scented carnations to her breast. “And thank you for wishing me good health. That’s the most precious thing you can wish for anyone. I once had a student here – a high-ranking commercial manager. She had leukaemia. She’d probably had everything she could ever have wished for, except the water of life. But she herself said that she’d always felt there was something missing. And when she fell ill, all she wanted was to get better! That’s what she said to me: ‘I don’t need anything else – just to get better!!” Clara leant on her elbows, cupped her head in her hands and looked round the group. Her eyes had misted over. “
You’re right,” agreed the trainee doctor from Omsk. “Health is the most precious gift we can ever have, that’s for sure. And,” she spread her plump hands wide, “there are not many people who bestow that gift on their fellows as generously as you do.”...
Buteyko Trilogy Volume 2 Excerpt Chapter 33
