“He’ll be here soon. It will be great, just like the time he took you to the zoo. Hey maybe we could ask him to take you there again. Wouldn’t that be fun?”
“No Gretchen, I don’t want to go. I need to stay with Mommy. She needs my help when she’s sick.”
“But your dad was so excited to come get you. He said he missed you and he would be here soon.”
“That was a long time ago. I’m staying here. Mommy needs me to keep her safe.”
Gretchen thought about the night before and how she barely heard the quiet knock on the door. She looked out, not expecting to see anyone, but there was Jase in his PJ’s in the dark on her porch. How he explained that he walked there in the by himself and Mommy needed help right away. How she called an ambulance for Emma …show more content…
We should.”
They knelt on the green and gray tile floor and prayed for a miracle. Jase’s words to God were no more than a whisper. Her tears came swiftly with the words he said.
“God, please make my Mommy feel better. Fix her Lamb and her bad coughs. Please help her wake up and still love me. I promise to go faster next time if you help her wake up. Help my Mommy find her prince. The one she says she wants to find someday. And help her talk to her Mommy and Dad so that she doesn’t miss them anymore.”
He didn’t ask for one thing for himself. He prayed solely for his mother. Gretchen took a ragged breath as he finished his prayers and stood back up again. He crawled up on the bed beside his mom and kissed her cheek, then whispered in her ear and nuzzled her neck.
An hour later she went into cardiac arrest. The room filled with nurses and doctors. Gretchen moved to the corner, watching in horror as her closest friend traded this world for another. In the confusion, Jase got pushed to the other corner of the room. He watched the swarm of people around his dying mother and felt totally helpless.
As they went to leave the hospital Gretchen took a hold of an inconsolable Jase’s …show more content…
“I’m sorry.” The two strangers embraced over the loss of two different remarkable women and the fear of losing Remy.
As they collectively supported each other in the waiting area, the pediatric surgeon walked solemnly though the hall in their direction. Cole spotted him first and stood with Jase still in his arms.
“I’m sorry. We did everything we could. In the end, he was just losing too much blood. He didn’t make it through the surgery.” There was pain in the doctor’s eyes. It hurt him to say those words. To lose a child on the operating table, a child he was trying desperately to save. Did he realize that in the course of a few hours Cole had lost everything he lived the last six years for? His wife, who probably hated him when she died, now his little boy, his mini me. He just stood there still as soldier. Jase pulled away from him just a little bit, “Dad, is he talking about my brother?”
That’s all it took. This was real. This nightmare of a day was somehow real. He lost it. Chelle, Gretchen, and the Doctor were all talking to him, but he just walked out. He carried Jase through the parking lot and kept walking all the way over to a bench on the other side. He sat Jase down and sat beside
“No Gretchen, I don’t want to go. I need to stay with Mommy. She needs my help when she’s sick.”
“But your dad was so excited to come get you. He said he missed you and he would be here soon.”
“That was a long time ago. I’m staying here. Mommy needs me to keep her safe.”
Gretchen thought about the night before and how she barely heard the quiet knock on the door. She looked out, not expecting to see anyone, but there was Jase in his PJ’s in the dark on her porch. How he explained that he walked there in the by himself and Mommy needed help right away. How she called an ambulance for Emma …show more content…
We should.”
They knelt on the green and gray tile floor and prayed for a miracle. Jase’s words to God were no more than a whisper. Her tears came swiftly with the words he said.
“God, please make my Mommy feel better. Fix her Lamb and her bad coughs. Please help her wake up and still love me. I promise to go faster next time if you help her wake up. Help my Mommy find her prince. The one she says she wants to find someday. And help her talk to her Mommy and Dad so that she doesn’t miss them anymore.”
He didn’t ask for one thing for himself. He prayed solely for his mother. Gretchen took a ragged breath as he finished his prayers and stood back up again. He crawled up on the bed beside his mom and kissed her cheek, then whispered in her ear and nuzzled her neck.
An hour later she went into cardiac arrest. The room filled with nurses and doctors. Gretchen moved to the corner, watching in horror as her closest friend traded this world for another. In the confusion, Jase got pushed to the other corner of the room. He watched the swarm of people around his dying mother and felt totally helpless.
As they went to leave the hospital Gretchen took a hold of an inconsolable Jase’s …show more content…
“I’m sorry.” The two strangers embraced over the loss of two different remarkable women and the fear of losing Remy.
As they collectively supported each other in the waiting area, the pediatric surgeon walked solemnly though the hall in their direction. Cole spotted him first and stood with Jase still in his arms.
“I’m sorry. We did everything we could. In the end, he was just losing too much blood. He didn’t make it through the surgery.” There was pain in the doctor’s eyes. It hurt him to say those words. To lose a child on the operating table, a child he was trying desperately to save. Did he realize that in the course of a few hours Cole had lost everything he lived the last six years for? His wife, who probably hated him when she died, now his little boy, his mini me. He just stood there still as soldier. Jase pulled away from him just a little bit, “Dad, is he talking about my brother?”
That’s all it took. This was real. This nightmare of a day was somehow real. He lost it. Chelle, Gretchen, and the Doctor were all talking to him, but he just walked out. He carried Jase through the parking lot and kept walking all the way over to a bench on the other side. He sat Jase down and sat beside