“How did she take it? Especially after all they’d been through? I would imagine it was pretty hard,” inquired Tom, gazing over at me.
“When I finally got up the courage to go in and tell her, I found myself at a lost for words. I’ve given countless presentations. And lectured through numerous courses on subjects involving human behavior. And yet I couldn’t find a comfortable way to tell my own mother she had just lost the love of her life, her husband and my father.
As I made my way through the door and over toward her, within seconds my emotions took over and drew me into a torrent of uncontrollable tears. About mid way toward the bed I found myself feeling faint. Taking a few additional steps, I immediately reached out for its railing as I slid unto the mattress before collapsing on her chest and arm. In indescribable anguish I lied there and cried as she laid silently in a deep sleep.
I must have slept in that position for the remainder of the night and throughout the early morning hours. Later I awakened to the warmth of the early morning sunlight creeping across the room. In its calmness of movement, it made its way beyond the window seal and unto a portion of her pillow where my hand rested.
Lying there, just staring down at the floor while trying to gather my thoughts on how and to tell her that her husband had just died, I began to gradually feel its gentle rays of hope spreading warmth across my arm as it stopped short of her head.
After a few lingering moments, out of the haze of my confusion I aimlessly glanced up into her face. And much to my surprise, I found her looking down at me with tears running from her eyes. My God… right at that moment.”
“Go ahead dear, it’s okay,” Verona whispered, as the other two sat in silence.
Finding comfort in her words, following a fainting sigh I added. “At that moment the look in her eyes. What they conveyed to me sent an unexpected and painful jolt through my body. What I felt…it felt as if life was stripping away my last breath.
For the second time in eight hours it felt as if life had momentarily escaped me, but this time returning in sudden, short gasps of air. After a few seconds of silence she laboriously uttered, ‘He’s gone…isn’t he?’
With tears streaming down my face from a torrent of uncontrollable emotions, I unbearably felt those words penetrating through me like a dagger of redemption, piercing the confines of an anguished soul on the verge confession. Touched by what could only be described as a moment of spiritual affirmation, peering up into the shadowing look of death in her eyes, I asked, ‘how did you know?’
‘I felt it in my heart,’ she murmured in a fainting tone, as she laboriously gasped to breathe. ‘God answered my prayers. I didn’t want to leave him alone, ever again. The last time nearly killed him. But this time…this time I’ll soon be with him. Always. Just as I promised…’
After uttering those words she slowly turned her head and closed her eyes, as she drifted into unconsciousness. I knew she was dying. As I turned to view the monitors, out of her slightly breached lips she once again gasped for air. Barely opening her eyes, gazing up at the ceiling, she whispered, ‘He was just here. And he kissed me…’
After a few passing moments of silence she once again drifted into unconsciousness, as I caught glimpse of a tear twinkling down her face. Gradually lowering my head in despair as I peered unto the floor, my eyes suddenly drew upon the photo that he had in his hand and must have dropped the night before when he was by her side.
