[WP] You have a "save slot" in your life. But only one.

From the Reddit Post:
[WP] You have a "save slot" in your life. But only one.

Earned 23 upvotes.
One of my favourite little stories

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The machines beeped in the background, his last beep was coming near. He lay on clean white sheets contemplating his life.
In ran a cadre of children, one of them carrying a frog that the older one was telling them they definitely shouldn't have in a hospital and can I hold it. He hugged them and told them each how much they meant to him.
Then came his eldest daughter. There was grey in her hair now, and her smile had wrinkled, but he still remembered her as a little girl, all those years ago.
"Hello Father"
"Hello Daughter" he smiled. A formal greeting. She had started to greet him like this when she was seven, and had been learning about ettiquette in school. She had thought it funny, and he had gone with it. As always.
"How are you feeling today?"
The little grandchild chimed in "Do you want to see my frog?".
"I think he will be fine without seeing your frog thank you sweetheart. Why don't you and your sisters take it outside to the pond where you found it".
The children made there way out, herded by the eldest who was just old enough to read the situation.
She sat down. He flashed her a smile and started to speak before breaking into a coughing fit. She handed him a glass of water from the side board and he drank before sitting back.
They sat in silence, accompanied only by the beeping of the machines. His heart ticked on its endless toil.
She looked unfortable, and wiped away a tear from her eye.
"Dad, I know this isn't something people discuss, not even between family, but I wanted to ask about....well.. your save."
She let the question hang in the air for a minute. He looked over at her and gave her a look to continue.
"... I know mum used hers when she was in her twenties. And she used it to go back and avoid marrying some other man who she said abused her. I used mine when I first fell pregnant, and stopped my miscarriage from happening." She shuddered at the thought. "I just, always wanted to know. When did you use yours?"
He looked across at her and sighed. "I haven't"
"When I was in my twenties, I was worried I would waste it. You can only go back to it once, so I wanted to be careful. And then I met your mother, and we married. In my thirties I had you, and in my forties and fifties I somehow got your brothers, your sister and you to grow up into semi-responsible adults." he cocked an eyebrow at her with a sly grin. "Then in my sixties and early seventies I traveled the world with your mother until she..." here his voice croaked as he spoke "... passed. And then I was 89. And I had great grandchildren. And cancer."
She interrupted "I was wondering... if... maybe you could go back, and find the cancer earlier?" Tears were pouring from her eyes. "I don't want to lose you daddy".
He smiled. She had always been his little girl, his eldest. She might be almost sixty now, but a parents love never changes.
"The problem my love is that of planning. You see, in all that living, I completely forgot to make a save."
She burst into tears and leaned over the bed onto his legs, sobbing into his lap.
"Sweetheart, even if I had made a save all those years ago, I still wouldn't go back."
"But why not?" she said sniffing. Her mascara was running down her face, and it reminded him of when she was eleven, and had first clumsily put on her mothers make-up.
He smiled, and stroked her hair.
"Because darling, I wouldn't for all the universe want to change one thing".

© Mark Langridge 2016