Brian and Nurse Brenda

"I am, but you can call me Martha. I'm pleased to meet you Mr. Stewart. You're much younger than I expected.

"Please call me Brian," I replied. "I'm 21 years old. So why did you want to see me Martha? Did I break a hospital rule by calling and asking for one of the nurses while she was on duty?"

The woman looked at me curiously. Her eyes were uncertain, as if she was searching for the answer to a puzzle. "Oh nothing so mundane as that Brian. I just wanted to try and find out the identity of the nurse who introduced herself to you as Brenda. Would you mind describing her for me again?"

"I'd be happy to," I replied. "I'd just like to find out who she is to thank her for taking such good care of me last night. She was very encouraging and made me feel much more relaxed about taking the stress test that I had this morning. "She has short reddish blonde hair. She's quite fit and trim with an attractive figure. She's 44 years old but looks my age. She has very pale skin with not a single wrinkle. She graduated from Nursing school in 1958. Does that help?"

"It does!" she replied, with a look of disbelief on her face. "I had to talk to you just to make sure I wasn't having some sort of a mental meltdown Brian. The woman you describe sounds exactly like a nurse I worked with when I was just starting out more than 25 years ago. Her name was Brenda Fisher. Brenda was a beautiful red headed girl from the same part of the state as me. I was going into my third year at nursing school when she was just starting her first year. We met in the school's library and within a few months we were best friends.

When I graduated, I came here to start my career. In the meantime, Brenda and I stayed in touch and remained very close friends, so when she graduated 23 years ago, she also came here to start her career. We were on the same shift and spent a lot of our spare time together." With that, Martha opened her purse and took out a large, framed photograph and handed it to me. "Please take a look at this photograph and tell me if you see anyone who looks like Brenda."

I took the photograph and could see right away that it was old and slightly yellowed. It had the look of a photograph you'd see in your grandparent's family album. It was a picture of a large group of nurses. I scanned it carefully and to my amazement, saw Brenda standing at the end of the front row. "That's Brenda at the left end of the front row! I'd know her anywhere," I exclaimed excitedly. "So you know who she is and where I can get in touch with her Martha?"

I glanced up and my excited smile disappeared when I saw the look of shock on Martha's face. "Brian," she said, in a voice trembling with shock, "that picture was taken 23 years ago. I had only been a nurse for 2 years and Brenda was brand new to the profession."

My mouth fell open in amazement. "How could a woman grow 23 years older without changing in the least?" I asked.

Martha asked me to sit down beside her and then put the photograph back into her purse. "I don't know what happened to you last night Brian, but the woman you saw couldn't have been Brenda Fisher," she said with a look of certainty on her face.

"But that's her in your picture Martha. I'm certain of that. I positive that she's the same nurse who was assigned to me last night. Why don't you believe that?"

Martha looked directly into my eyes and said "Brenda Fisher died 23 years ago Brian. She had just graduated from Nursing school and was engaged to be married to a young man by the name of William Jackson. He was a terrific guy. I got to know him very well as he came to visit Brenda almost every weekend while she was in nursing school. The three of us would often go out to a movie or go bowling together. He and Brenda were so much in love. He was an engineer. I remember how excited I was about their wedding. Brenda had asked me to be her maid of honor and I was so proud and happy."

It was about a week before their wedding when William came to the hospital to pick Brenda up after her shift and drive her home. While they were on their way, William decided to check on a building that he had to certify and Brenda insisted that he take her along on the inspection. She was always very interested in William's job and wanted to know everything about it. Against William's better judgement, he took Brenda along on the inspection. While they were in the building, a device that supported a portion of the structure failed and the roof collapsed. They were both killed instantly."

"It was such a shame. They'd been a couple since they were in high school and had decided early on in their relationship not to be intimate until they were married. It's so sad that they never got to experience the love that they'd denied themselves from the day they met."

I sat there in shock. I couldn't believe that I'd met and fell madly in love with a woman who had died before I was even born. "Who was I with last night?" I asked aloud. "Did I fall in love with a ghost?"

Martha appeared to be as confused as I was. "I don't know Brian. You weren't given any medication last night, so you couldn't have been hallucinating."

"But I must have been hallucinating Martha," I replied insistently. "Brenda Fisher has been dead for 23 years and somehow I came up with the crazy idea that she spent the night with me in my hospital room. What other explanation is there?"

The aging nurse stared at me with a puzzled look on her face. She was just as bewildered as I was by the unbelievable story I'd related. As she was looking at me, a look of shocked realization shot across her face. "My God Brian. I just realized that you look just like William Jackson. He had the same colored hair, the same physique, the same facial features and most of all, the same eyes. You could have been his twin."

I couldn't believe my ears. "That's exactly what Brenda said. She told me that her fiancé looked just like me. And she told me the same story about William's death as you just told me, except she never said that she died at the same time as he did."

We sat there in the lobby for about five minutes, saying nothing but mentally examining everything that had happened the night before. Finally, Martha sighed and remarked, "Life is full of mysteries Brian. We'll probably speculate on who or what you saw last night for the rest of our lives. Some mysteries are simply never solved." She was silent for a few minutes and then finally said, "All of this excitement has made my mouth dry. I'll have to pick up some gum before I go on shift."

"Oh, please have some of mine." I said and reached into my pocket for the package of gum that I was never without. As I fumbled through my pocket, my fingers found a cold metal tube. I had no idea what it was and pulled it out. It was a tube of lipstick. "Oh my god!" I gasped and handed the lipstick to Martha, "This fell out of the pocket of Brenda's uniform when she was leaving this morning."

Martha took the lipstick and when examined it, she looked like she was going to faint. ". " My God Brian. This is Renard's Scarlette Crème lipstick. It was the only lipstick that Brenda ever wore. It was expensive but she loved it so much she didn't care. She had to order it directly from the manufacturer in Paris because it wasn't carried by any of the stores in America."

The old nurse started weeping silently as if she'd just met up with an old friend who'd been gone for decades. "Are you alright Martha?" I asked in a whisper.

She looked up at me and with tears running down her cheeks sobbed, "Renards stopped making Scarlette Crème more than twenty years ago Brian.

The unbelievable incident that I've just described, took place more than 35 years ago. I only saw Martha Lennox on a few occasions after our initial meeting, but she'd often phone to tell me about some incident involving Brenda that she'd just recalled. She passed away about 15 years ago, still haunted by my story of the mysterious visit from Brenda Fisher.

My ex-fiancée quit her job in California and returned home about a year after breaking off our relationship. She called and told me that she'd suddenly realized how much she loved me and, because of that, couldn't continue the relationship with the man she'd met in California. I listened to her story with next to no interest and then told her to continue searching as I was sure that her Mr. Right was out there somewhere.

I retired about six months ago and now I spend most of my days golfing and fishing. I never married. After the night of unbelievable passion that I shared with Brenda Fisher all those years ago, I knew I'd never find another woman who could so completely capture my heart. I dated along the way, but once you've tasted of fine vintage wine, you can't go back to drinking muscatel.

The world is filled with mysteries that puzzle and bewilder us and change our lives forever. As the shadows grow longer for me, I wonder if I'll ever again look into the bewitchingly eyes of the owner of the old tube of Renard's Scarlette Crème lipstick that has rested on my night table for the past 35 years.