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.
As I reached down to pick it up, I aimlessly noticed something written on the back of it. Wiping the tears from my eyes, I slowly turned as I slid back unto the bed next to her. Focusing in on the picture as I pulled it into closer view, the image captured them sitting on the beach together with her lying back in his arms. God, the look in their eyes said so much.
