A Love Story with a Little Heartbreak
Page 27
the nothingness was gone………………………………………. …………………………………………...fading………………
……………………………too-ra-loo……………..……………
……………...once it was everywhere……………now it was… ……………………..nowhere…………….…...it was gone…....
………………………………..…………………………………
…………… someone was holding her hand……………...…....
…………………………….…that was the feeling…………….
………………………………………..…………………………
someone had been holding her hand…………………………… ……………she thought that’s what kept her from leaving…. ..……..………………..from going to that infinite…………….. ……….place…………………………………………………… ………………………………it wasn’t her time to go…………
……………………………too-ra-loo……………..……………
………………………………………Connie……..………………someone said her name……………………………………...
…………............…...her mother said her name…………it was her mother’s voice…...………………….……………………… ……………….…………………………………………..……...
……too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral……………………………too-ra-loo-ra-li……………………………………………………….……..
………………and Henry’s voice………………………………
……………………………………………..……………………
…………...Henry was her stepfather……she knew that………
…….the nothingness was gone……………………………..…..
……………her hand was warm, in someone else’s hand……... ………………………………………………………………….. …….…………………………….but whose hand was it?.......... …………………was it her mother’s?.........................................
…………………………………...….no, her mother was by her other hand…………it wasn’t Henry’s hand…………………… …………………………………………………………………..
Henry’s hand wasn’t soft……………...….this was soft and dry ……………………………...……………………….………..……………………………the hand felt good.………...…………
………but it was enough………………………………...……..
……………………………………………………….……….…
……..someone was holding onto her….she knew that now…… …...……………………………………………………………...
…………… she squeezed it, but it was all she could do………
…………………………then whatever consciousness she had disappeared……………………………………………………..
…………………………..……………………then……………. it came right back!......................................................................
Father Oliver’s entire face contorted, and he gasped as if he were a man fighting for his last gasp of air, so startled was he when Connie squeezed his hand. The sensation was electrifying, as if ten thousand volts surged into his heart. He cried out, “Oh, my God! God has answered our prayers!” He looked to Ruby, then Henry, then back to Ruby. “Ruby, Henry, Connie just squeezed my hand! She squeezed my hand! Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! She squeezed my hand!”
Ruby and Henry jumped to their feet and moved to Connie’s face, expecting… expecting what? Maybe she would open her eye and see them. Long seconds of silence passed. Nothing happened. Connie didn’t move again. Henry pulled back from the bed and ran out of the room, crying out, “I’ll get Doc!” Ruby and Father Oliver could hear Henry’s voice fading down the hall as he ran for help, “Doctor von Hoerner! Doctor von Hoerner!”
Not five minutes passed when Henry ran back into the room. Dr. von Hoerner was right behind him, along with the floor’s duty nurse. Henry charged into the room, looking so hopeful, like a kid on Christmas morning, surely expecting to see Connie sitting up in bed and chatting away.
“Well?” Henry demanded, looking at Father Oliver, then Ruby, then back to Father Oliver, then back to Ruby. He could see no visible change in Connie. “What happened? Is she back? Is she back?”
“Henry,” Ruby said, admonishing him, “calm down.” Then Ruby turned to face Dr. von Hoerner while Father Oliver deferred to her as the bearer of the momentous news. “Doctor, Connie squeezed Father Oliver’s hand!”
“Is this true, Father?” von Hoerner asked, hopeful but cautious about not jumping to conclusions.”
“Yes, Docter, yes,” replied Father Oliver, who was now standing. Connie squeezed my hand. I know she did. I’ve been waiting six months for a sign. I couldn’t have imagined it.”
“I believe you, Father. It might be something,” he replied as he moved to the other side of the bed, to the far side from the door. He placed his hand on Connie’s neck to check the pulse from her carotid artery. A pulse registered, and he noted to himself that it was strong. At that moment, no one said anything. Ruby and Henry were holding their breath with the possibilities. Father Oliver was looking up to the ceiling, clearly in an intense prayer, his folded prayerful hands shaking visibly, with fingertips pressed to his lips. Then Dr. von Hoerner gently moved his left hand upward to Connie’s good eye and, with a soft touch, lifted her eyelid to check her pupil, hoping he’d see more than the motionless, dilated pupil that he had seen every day for the past six months. When her lid came up, Connie looked right at him, into his eyes.
The moments that Dr. von Hoerner stood over Connie were so quiet that you could hear a pin drop in the room. Ruby and Henry and Father Oliver held their breath, exercising excruciating patience for the next words out of Dr. von Hoerner’s mouth, as he leaned over Connie within a foot of her face.
He spoke to her, softly and lovingly. “Hello, Connie,” he said. “We’ve missed you!”
Ruby nearly fainted; she collapsed like a dropped dish towel in her chair. Henry yelled out, “Oh, my God! Connie’s back! Thank you, Lord, thank you!” and thrust his arms upward. Father Oliver fell to his knees and kissed his silver cross. Dr. von Hoerner stood tall. It was the only outcome he had let himself contemplate.
Dr. von Hoerner was already thinking about putting a plan in motion for Connie’s rehabilitation. And he had something else to do—something that required him to be alone with Connie. For the immediate moment, he asked everyone to go home and let Connie rest and give her some time to orient herself. It wasn’t easy for Ruby and Henry or, for that matter, Father Oliver to leave, but they followed Dr. von Hoerner’s advice.
The three of them left the room, speechless in happiness, looking at each other with faces that made up a collage of smiles, tears, lip-biting, and sighs of joy. But most of all, they were high with the lightheadedness of relief because the fog that had enveloped for Connie for six months had finally lifted. Ten minutes later, in Henry’s car on the way back to Chilton, all three were talking all at once and couldn’t stop talking, so great was their elation.
Later that day, well after the dinner hour and well after Ruby and Henry had made countless telephone calls to friends and family, they reflected on what they had told everyone, and the most commonly uttered phrase in the telling was, “It’s a miracle!”
No one knows how to explain a patient’s return from a coma, nor what the trigger was for Connie’s recovery to consciousness, nor if it was a single trigger or multiple ones or some unique formulation of triggers. Was it the medical treatment and the c
ommitted attention and care of Dr. von Hoerner and his dedicated staff? Was it the constant human contact and love provided daily by three individuals? Was it divine intervention? Was it an Irish lullaby? Was it simply that nature needed time to heal Connie’s wounds? I say, it doesn’t make any difference because the outcome was what everyone had hoped for. There was lots of rejoicing in the knowledge that Connie had come back! How great it is to know that the human spirit, for whatever reason, can overcome so much adversity!
∞