Mina died the day her legs stopped working.

All of a sudden, she couldn't get out of bed. They just wouldn't move. No matter how hard she tried, they remained still. Like fallen logs. Useless pieces of wood. A panic overtook her, her chest tightening and tears pricking the corners of her eyes.

This couldn't be happening. Not now. Not today. Not to her.

She couldn't even sit up. She tried to manoeuvre her arms, pushing against the mattress as hard as she could. Trying to press her body up against the head board to force her torso into a seated position. 

It wasn't working.

A pitiful cry as released as her arms gave in. She lay flat. Staring at the ceiling, trying to move her toes. Trying to move anything below her arms.

"Minari?" Her wife's groggy voice came from beside her, stirring after feeling and hearing Mina's distress. "What's going on?"

There was a pause.

"I can't get up." Her voice cracked. The tear that ran from the corner of her right eye and down her cheek stung as if it were made from the strongest acid on earth. I can't get up. Mina thought to herself. 

Momo's face merged into her blurry vision, her eyes crinkled in concern and her face blurred around the edges, mixing colours with the tears.

"What do you mean?" She pulled her grey hair back from her eyes, reaching to the bedside table for a hair-tie. "Can't you sit up at all? I'll help you."

Mina knew that nothing Momo could try to do would do anything but pull her lifeless body into a wonky seated position. She couldn't hold herself up. She fell against Momo's chest.

"I can't get up." She repeated, her voice barely a whisper.

Momo called the ambulance and Mina was admitted to hospital within the afternoon. Tests and tests and tests were conducted. She went through doctor after doctor, despite her knowledge that this was all useless.

Yet she kept telling them that they were wrong. She couldn't just be getting old. That couldn't happen to her. They were being stupid. They weren't conducting the right tests. They MUST be missing something.

She yelled at the nurses. She yelled at the receptionists. She yelled at the doctors. She yelled at Momo.

"You're all WRONG. I'M NOT GETTING OLD."

Momo flinched at her words, pulling her hand away from Mina's and clutching the rail of the bed she was on.

"Mina, you're 75. Things like this happen when you get older."

"Well, it can't happen to me." She couldn't accept it.

Mina had no choice but to accept it. She was 75, and she was old. 

Now she needed to be in a wheelchair to get around. She needed someone to help her get dressed. She needed someone to take her to the bath