Love for all seasons.

                  Shalini  sat at her dressing table, surveying the changes her face had undergone during the five odd decades of her life.  She tucked back a tuft of greys as her eyes fixed on the laugh lines. They had become quite prominent in the past few years. “But, they are laugh lines, Shalini. And, that means you laugh a lot! Don’t you now, Professor?” Vipul had chuckled, making her blush a deep red.
                Dr. Vipul Mehra, her dentist, who had seemed quite frosty initially, had soon warmed up to her  and become an integral part of her life; a support system she had lacked all these years. A lonely soul, who had lost his wife to cancer, Vipul had charmed Shalini with his wit and humour. She had experienced unbridled joy after so long!
               Life with Vinod, her husband, had been a happy one till the   horrifying accident, which had snuffed out that happiness in one single stroke. She had laboured night and day to bring up their only daughter, Juhi, singlehandedly. She had fulfilled her dual responsibility towards her daughter in the best way she could. But, once Juhi got married and flew the nest, Shalini had felt a vacuum engulf her. A vacuum that Vipul had  filled up with his boundless zest for life and, of course, his  contagious laughter.
                She now gazed at her husband’s picture with a question in her eyes. A question she was too scared to ask herself! Would she be too selfish, if she now dared to think of herself, her happiness? Would society accept her decision to begin her life afresh, at an age when people thought of retiring from their’s? And, most importantly, did she have the permission to fall in love at this age?
             
              Her phone rang,  snapping  her out of her thoughts. She smiled as she saw the caller’s name.
           “Hey, Prof, how ’bout a date with your doc, hmm ?  7 pm, at the clinic. Your throne awaits you, Your Highness!  And, your old tooth fairy has got a crown…for your tooth!” She burst into a peal of laughter, which  filled up the room as she made up her mind.

This week: Phrase Prompt.
Love for all seasons.

This week’s prompt comes from the three B-A-R members:  Shalini Nair, Sulekha Rawat and Sheethal Susan Jacob.