It's On Me

A heartwarming narrative of hope shining over the difficulties posed by pharmaceutical costs

By Rebecca Agauas

It was a Thursday evening and I had just finished my shift for the day. My mom and I had made our way to the pharmacy to pick up her prescriptions. 

My mom is sick; she has been so during the entirety of my life. Whether it was the cancer she had thrice or the MS she’s been living with for the past 22 years, she’s always had quite a few health issues. She takes a lot of medications– a nice little cocktail every day. We joke about our medicine cabinet looking like a pharmacy, but it really does look like one. You need it, we got it.

I’m her caregiver, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have my fair share of health issues either. I’m starting to rack them up like my mom has. It can be difficult to take care of another person when you have a hard time taking care of yourself; more than half the time, I put her needs before mine. 

Yet if we’re being honest here, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I wouldn’t change a thing. She’s my entire world.

That Thursday as we stood in the pharmacy line, I could sense the panic in my mom's voice and see the stress lining her body. She’s on disability; she doesn’t receive enough money to pay her bills, let alone cover all her medical expenses. That’s where I step in. I pay for what she can’t. But tonight's bill was too much for even me. As the pharmacist tallied up my mom’s  meds and told us what she owed, both of our minds went blank. It was like a sequence right out of a movie. Everything went blurry, we were hard of hearing, and we entered a daze. 

After a few seconds, I came back into focus and could hear the pharmacist speaking to us. 

“Miss, that will be $400”.

We looked at each with sadness. There was no way we could afford it. We stated deciding which medication she could do without and which ones we could get at a later time.

Without realizing it, we must have been in line for a good 15-20 minutes trying to decide, scrambling and fumbling around. We were holding everyone in the line up. But the sticker shock allowed me to not care.

And in that moment, when we needed it the most, an angel tapped us on the shoulder. 

The woman behind us graciously said “it’s on me”. She paid for all of my moms $400 prescriptions. 

I was shocked and dumbfounded at the kindness this woman was showing us. My mom cried and begged her “no” but she wasn’t having any of it. She was paying, whether we liked it or not. 

There are still good people out there. 

There are angels out there.

You just never know when they’ll tap you on your shoulder.