by Phil Wohl
TEN
Dave guided the girls’ basketball team to the second round, where they lost to the eventual champion by only three points.
Walter Abrahams drove the boy’s team to the semi-final game against perennial powerhouse, Choral Stream. With five seconds left in the game, Choral Stream inbounded the ball at half-court to a player that took two dribbles and then appeared to trip over his own feet. The trailing referee blew his whistle and called a foul on the closest Bailey Woods player, proving that the more celebrated and connected teams also got the calls during the summer.
Walter jumped in the air and started yelling at the ref, “He tripped over his own feet!” Dave was watching the game from the other side of the fence - primarily because he was restricted from being on-court when his team played summer games – he noticed an immediate change in his father’s demeanor, stood up, and then started walking toward sacred ground. Coach A grabbed his chest, went down on one knee, and then fell toward the concrete.
Tony D was standing next to Dave and instinctively dialed 9-1-1. Thankfully, Dorio had been an EMS worker for a few years after high school. The two guys then raced onto the court to help Walter.
A sweaty, Walter Abrahams was face down, so the first thing Tony did was turn him over and check if he had a pulse. Walter had no pulse, so Tony started administering CPR. Within a few minutes, Walter was breathing again and the paramedics showed up. One of the EMS guys said, “What do we have here, TD?”
“Hey Kev, we have a 62 year-old man who grabbed his chest and appeared to suffer a fairly significant heart attack. He had no pulse, so I administered CPR and now he’s breathing.”
The EMS guys lifted Walter on a gurney and exiting the court to polite applause.
Dave looked back at Tony and said, “Finish this up TD and meet me at the hospital. Don’t let these guys quit.”
Luckily, the Bailey Woods Medical Center was one of the finest heart hospitals on the East Coast and was only minutes from Veterans Memorial Park. Walter was stabilized in the ambulance and then set up briefly in the emergency room, before moving to the Cardio Pulmonary wing of the hospital by the end of the day.
Sarah and Lindsay were both single and living with their parents, so they decided to start looking for a place they could share somewhere between their two schools. That was, before Sarah came home…
She dropped her stuff off at home and raced over to Dave’s town home. This was the day after Walter suffered his heart attack, and his life was still hanging in the balance. An angiogram revealed that an angioplasty was necessary, and that procedure would take place later that morning.
Sarah knocked on Dave and Tony’s door and a groggy Tony answered the door.
“Sarah! Come on in,” Tony said in his low bass voice as he hugged her.
“Rough night?” Sarah said in a sarcastic tone.
Tony turned around as he approached the living room. “Yeah, we had a real rough night last night.”
Sarah looked around and was instantly worried, “Where’s Dave?”
“He’s at the hospital.”
“Is he all right?” Sarah said in a frantic tone.
“Yeah, it’s his dad. He had a heart attack at the end of the game last night.”
“BW Medical?” she said as she started walked out.
“Yeah. I’ll see you later.”
A female voice from the other room yelled, “Who’s there, Tony Bear?” Bianca came in the room wearing only a navy Bailey Woods practice jersey that looked like a dress.
The voice stopped Sarah in her tracks. “Bianca, this is Sarah. Sarah, this is my girlfriend, Bianca.”
Sarah waved and said, “Nice to meet you Bianca. I’ll see you later, Tony.” She closed the door and was off to the hospital.
“Pretty girl,” Bianca said. “She even looks like Dave,” a significantly calmer Bianca said as she reached up and kissed her man.
Sarah raced to the hospital and asked the attendant at the information desk to help her locate Walter Abrahams. “They’ll be in the waiting room on the east wing of the Cardio Pulmonary floor.”
The world slowed down while Sarah’s heartbeat sped up. It seemed like it took forever and a day to get to Dave. She navigated the hallway until she came to the east waiting room, which appeared at first sight to be empty. That was, until she saw Dave sitting by himself, head buried in his hands. She walked toward him and he instinctively turned to see who was coming. He stood up slowly as she rushed toward him – he was sobbing even before their bodies melted together.
“Thank god you’re here!” he said between tears.
Sarah kept stroking Dave’s hair and saying, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
Her kisses on his forehead felt like a healing potion – like an apple pie cooling in an open window – like a mother rocking a sick child to sleep – like coming home all over again.
Dave had discovered how precious time was, and wasn’t about to waste another second of his life pretending. He wiped his tears on the sleeve of his t-shirt and then entwined his left hand in Sarah’s right hand – he raised the clasped hands and kissed the back of Sarah’s hand.
“I love you and I can’t live without you,” he said as they hugged.
She started crying and quietly replied, “I loved you from the first moment I saw you.”
The started laughing. “That man, your father, will never give up. You think he’s gonna’ miss you win another championship?” she said pointing toward the O.R.
Just then, Pete’s mom and sister came walking in with a cup of vanilla frozen yogurt with rainbow sprinkles.
“They were out of chocolate sprinkles, Dave’s sister said. “Hi, Sarah.”
Sarah hugged Lori and Mrs. Abrahams and reconnected hands with Dave once they sat back down.
Mrs. Abrahams looked at Sarah and David and said, “Well, if you two can finally come together then there is definitely hope for us all.” Everyone instinctively said, “Amen.”
Hours later, Dr. Prescott came out of the operating room with his best poker face.
“Well, it took a little longer than we thought, largely because he had about seventy percent blockage in one of the main arteries. We were able to clear the path and our diagnosis is for a complete recovery.”
A collective sigh and then a cheer could be heard in the now, crowded waiting room. Bianca, Tony, Finnegan, O’Malley, Breslin, Brady, and even Principal Doherty joined Pete, Sarah, and Pete’s mom and sister. It wasn’t Walter’s time to go, and the group was grateful for the opportunity for him to continue to be a huge part of their lives.
Walter Abrahams might have been short-tempered and hyper-critical at times, but he would give his left arm to someone if they needed it. This unwavering dedication and intensity produced two separate lines of supporters and detractors in his life.
Dave might have mirrored his dad in physical attributes, but shared very few personality traits with his dad. However, Walter did pass down his blatant refusal to ever relent, which some saw as stubbornness but others lauded as a winning attitude. The two men had vision and would only see the ultimate goal, not the treacherous path leading up to the goal. This single sense of purpose usually translated into much more success, than failure.
Dave considered success the maximization of effort, while his dad only had the elusive thought of perfection in his sights. For men like Walter Abrahams, elation and satisfaction are only achieved through imperfection – also a cause of inner turbulence and probably a catalyst for his heart attack, along with incessant cheese eating and his refusal to get annual check-ups.
In fact, Walter hadn’t seen a doctor since his first cousin died of cancer three years earlier. The two men were the same age and were very close most of their lives. The family grumbled that a miss-diagnosis was the culprit, not a softball-sized tumor that developed in his lungs from Elijah Abrahams 35 years of smoking.
An initial diag
nosis of an upper respiratory infection by a family internist, turned into full-blown lung cancer once the proper scans and films were taken. A few weeks really didn’t matter I the grand scheme of things – Elijah’s cup was emptied six months later.
Walter made some changes after Elijah’s death, and vowed to eat and live healthier. This high-fiber, low-fat lifestyle endured about six months until Walter reverted back to eating bagels and cream cheese, instead of fruit and granola. This time, however, the change would have to be permanent, or the life change would be permanent.
