Sisterhood Of Lake Alice

by Mari M. Osmon

  Within the next week, one by one, each of the O’Malley children came down with spinal polio. They were terrified as to who would be the next polio victim. Paul and Anna decided that it was best for one of them to be at the hospital while the other stayed at home with the children, who were now starting to recover. They felt completely helpless as they watched their children suffer with high fevers, constant muscle cramping, and extreme pain in all of their muscles and joints.

  At the end of the day, Anna spent hours praying, begging God to be merciful and to heal her children. She cried herself to sleep night after night, convinced that they had done something horribly wrong to deserve this terrible plague that had come to them. When Paul was not working, he often found himself staring at the little faces of his innocent children. His prayer was always the same. He asked God to take him and leave his children alone. He became angrier with each trip he made to the hospital. He went from being a carefree guy to a man with a short temper.

  He slammed his car door on a regular basis. He no longer had patience for anything. One day, in a fit of rage, he threw a screwdriver across a room, nearly hitting Sister Francis. Finally, Sister Vincent confronted Paul. She told him, “We all feel your pain. We have no way to truly understand all the emotions that you are faced with each day. However, we need you to keep your temper under control. The sisters are concerned but also a little frightened by your constant outbursts. How can we help you? We are praying for you, but it is obvious that you need more from us. Perhaps you need to stay home with your family for a while until you can cope with the pressures.”

  Paul now feared that he might lose his job on top of all the other chaos that was going on in his life. He promised Sister Vincent that he would continue to work. He went to the convent to apologize to the sisters for making them feel uncomfortable. So Paul learned to keep all his rage inside of himself and began to shut out the world, including Anna.

  *

  No one in the O’Malley house slept through the night. Paul or Anna were constantly checking on the children to make sure they were okay. Each of the children lay awake in bed, fearing that if they fell asleep, they would wake up paralyzed. As each child was released from the hospital, a new routine started. Vials of medicine took up one whole shelf in the refrigerator. Anna learned to inject their tiny bodies three times each day. The dining room table was turned into a place where steaming hot towels were wrapped around their arms and legs while hours of painful exercises were done.

  Their happy home quickly became a quiet, sad place to live. There was a smell of sickness in the air as everyone struggled to get through the day. None of the children complained because they all knew their brothers and sisters were living with the same searing pain that ripped through every muscle in their bodies. In the still of the night, you could hear the whispers of prayers, the clicking of rosary beads, and tears, each of them praying for a better tomorrow.

  *

  Each new case of polio was more serious than the previous one. Grace had been in the hospital for two days when she pleaded with her parents to take her home. The entire time she was in the hospital, she was determined that she would not sleep. She had seen too many kids in her ward wake up in the morning and be told that they were paralyzed. She was not going to allow this to happen to her. For hours at a time, she lay in her bed constantly moving her legs and feet. She vowed that this polio would not bring her down. She knew she needed to be strong.

  The same day she came home from the hospital, an ambulance arrived to take her baby brother John late that night. Grace sat on Denny’s bed, crying and asking him why God was being so cruel to them. Denny simply put his arms around Grace and told her that they needed to pray for John. They spent the night praying and looking out the window, waiting for their parents to come home.

  At about three o’clock in the morning, Denny started to cough. He did not seem to be able to catch his breath and was suddenly burning up with fever. His arms and legs began shaking uncontrollably. Grace brought him a glass of water and held his hand, as he seemed to become sicker within minutes. She remembered how wonderful the cold washcloths in the hospital felt as she laid one on his forehead. She kept running back and forth, trying to keep Denny cool.

  An hour later, the exhausted O’Malleys pulled into their driveway. Sister Ruth Ann was asleep in Paul’s chair in the living room. The back door opened as Grace came running to them, shouting to them to come quickly. Denny was now sicker than any of them had been.

  Once again, the ambulance pulled up in front of the O’Malleys’ house. The nuns ran over to see what they could do to help and watched Denny being carried down the front stairs on a stretcher. Grace walked next to him, determined to stay with her big brother. She asked him if there was anything she could do for him. He looked at her and asked her to go to his room and bring his favorite statue of Jesus, which he kept on his nightstand. In pain, she ran back in the house to retrieve the statue. As she gently placed it in Denny’s hand, for the first time in her life, she told him that she loved him. She cried as she told Denny to keep moving his feet and that he would be okay. As the ambulance pulled away, Grace sat on the front porch sobbing.

  *

  Despite the health warnings, the nuns took turns staying with the O’Malley children. They prepared their meals, read to them, and prayed with them while Paul and Anna stayed at the hospital. Everyone else was terrified to enter the house with the large, bright orange quarantine sign on the front and back doors.

  It was dinnertime when the O’Malleys pulled into their driveway. Except this time, neither Paul nor Anna got out of the car. Instead, they sat in the front seat hugging each other. Finally, they came into the house. Before they could say a word, Grace knew that Denny had died. She felt the loss deep inside of her weak little body. Paul sat in his chair by the fireplace and wept uncontrollably. Anna sat in her chair next to him and simply stared down at her hands. The children were very quiet as they waited for their parents to talk to them.

  After what seemed like hours but was just a few minutes, Anna raised her head and gathered the children around her. She spoke in a whisper as she told them that Denny had gone to heaven to be with Jesus and the angels. She told them to go get their rosaries. Once they had come together again, they marched across the street in silence and into the dark church. Each of them lit a candle and then proceeded to go to the front of the empty, dark church. Kneeling side by side, they began to recite their prayers. Their sobs mingled as their prayers echoed through the church. Silently, the nuns came into the church and knelt beside the O’Malleys. They joined them in prayers as their tears also flowed.

  *

  The health department called Paul O’Malley to inform him that none of the children were allowed to attend Denny’s funeral services because of the quarantine restrictions. Any violation of the quarantine would result in a $500 fine and possible quarantine of others who were exposed to them during the service. He also mentioned that the health department was aware of the nuns entering their house. Unless he wanted to see the convent quarantined, this was to cease immediately. Paul wondered how much more any of them could take without breaking down completely. However, he knew that he needed to comply.

  With great pain, he told his children that they would not be attending Denny’s funeral. After that, he went to the convent and told the nuns that they were no longer able to visit his home. Sister Vincent was outraged and said, “Nothing will keep me from being with your family. We are called by God to aid the sick, and I, for one, will continue to visit. I cannot in good conscience stay away from them when I know how much suffering is going on in your house right now. I will accept whatever punishment the health department doles out. I will inform them that this is my decision and no one else’s.”

  Paul told her that if she did come into their house, it was possible that their entire convent would be placed in quarantine. If that happe
ned, the school would not be allowed to open in September. He could not bear that guilt. And so, all the nuns promised to obey his wishes. They told him that every evening at six o’clock, they would hold a one-hour prayer vigil for the O’Malleys. No one could stop them from doing that.

  *

  No one knew what to say to the O’Malleys or how to comfort them. Their kitchen overflowed with food that was left on their front porch. The family sat at the kitchen table hugging each other in silence, looking at Denny’s empty chair. Each one of them felt that it should have been them, not Denny, to have died. He was the “good” one. He was the one who did everything the right way and for the right reasons. He was their protector. He was the older brother that they all looked up to and admired.

  Each of them in their own silent way became angry with God. They all questioned the injustice of Denny’s death, but none of them were brave enough to say it. Each one of them tried to heal themselves and be strong for the others. Deep, throbbing pain ripped through everyone and every room of the little house. None of them could think that they would ever find happiness or laughter again. The O’Malleys were locked into a soul-wrenching sorrow.

  It was as though all of the joy had been sucked out of the O’Malleys’ once-cheerful home. Paul walked around in a daze. He would sit for hours in his chair in the living room staring at nothing. Anyone who looked at him instantly knew that this was a broken man. Anna clung to her children and cried herself to sleep most nights. All of the children were afraid to be happy or to have any fun, fearing that it was disrespectful to Denny’s memory. The once noisy, busy house was now still.

  Finally, Grace felt the strong need to bring some happiness back to all of them. She started writing songs and poems; some of them were about Denny. They knew that they were all in quarantine until at least the middle of October. Grace started to play the piano again. At first, she sang old church hymns; but after a while, she started singing more upbeat songs that she had heard on the radio. Slowly, her brothers and sisters started to join her in the living room to sing and play the piano. Paul was the only one who simply could not bring himself back from his deep grief. When the singing began, he would quietly leave and sit on the back porch, always alone.

  School assignments for each of the children were put in their mailbox on the front porch each day. Before bed each evening, their completed lessons were returned to the mailbox, where they were picked up by one of the nuns. The children often sat on the front porch watching the kids come and go to school. They watched sadly as the students poured onto the playground for recess. Each of them wondered if life would ever be normal for them again.

  *

  The first week in October, the health department truck pulled up in front of their house. Four men wearing gloves, masks, and white coveralls walked up to the front porch and told the children to go in the house. Mrs. O’Malley had been expecting them. She held the front door open, knowing that what was going to happen would be another painful experience for her children.

  The men carried large boxes with the same ugly, orange quarantine label on the sides of each box. Without a word, they moved from room to room taking all the drapes, bedding, towels, and children’s toys. At last, they came back into the living room, where the children were all huddled together on the sofa. The bigger man asked them to move from the sofa. He then ripped off all of the slipcovers that Anna had spent hours making last year. The last thing they took was all the living room drapes. The children watched in sheer terror from the window as the men quickly left the front porch, ripping the bright orange quarantine signs from the front and back doors of the house. They threw the signs, gloves, and masks into the large boxes as they walked back to their truck.

  Their home felt cold and violated. Anna gathered the children as she tried to comfort them. She explained that this was the only way that it could be done. She told them that everything that had been taken was going to be burned so that the bad germs would never hurt them or anyone else again. When Paul came home that night, he found them still sitting together on the sofa, holding each other as they sobbed. He, too, was heartbroken once again. He felt he was a failure, unable to protect his family from all the pain they were going through.

  *

  Anna called to confirm that her family could now go about their everyday life. The nuns arrived with boxes of linens, towels, and material for Anna to use for new drapes. They had also brought a small stuffed animal for each of the children, knowing that it could never make up for their loss but hoping it might help ease their pain.

  All of them celebrated the next evening with a big bowl of popcorn and ice-cold root beer. That evening after everyone was asleep, Grace quietly tiptoed out of bed. She got the flashlight from her desk and opened the small door behind her bed. There, in a little crawl space, she had made a pretend house for her dolls with a child-size table with two chairs and her favorite tea set. She sat at the table, which was too small for her, and cried. The next morning, she took her two sisters to the secret playroom. They vowed to never tell anyone about this special room or the four dolls that had survived the men in white. It would be their secret forever.

  *

  The following Monday morning, the O’Malley children were dressed and ready to leave for school almost an hour early. Grace, Hope, and Joy wore their uniforms, while Luke wore new navy blue pants and a white shirt. John was still too sick to go to school and required daily physical therapy. They raced across the street as soon as they saw their friends. All of them were met with looks of terror. Their old friends turned and ran away from them.

  Anna and Johnny sat on the front porch watching the painful reentry. Anna knew that there would be more pain on the way. It did not take long for all the O’Malley kids to realize that no one was going to play with them. By lunchtime, they were back home crying and asking why people were being so mean to them. It took almost a year before the children were able to reconnect with a few friends.

  *

  Grace decided that she was simply not going to let a few stupid people get in her way. She was determined to be happy. Convinced that Denny was now her personal angel, she felt strong and nothing was going to stop her! At the tender age of eight, she had learned life lessons that gave her a wisdom that few girls at her age could understand. She felt his presence as she prayed every day for patience and the ability to forgive all the hateful girls in her class.

  Sister Vincent’s heart ached for her. The two of them spent hours talking about Grace’s fears and dreams. Grace took up Sister Rose’s generous offer for private voice lessons. Within a short time, Sister Rose realized that Grace had a beautiful alto voice. She encouraged Grace to sing often. Grace found that singing brought some happiness back into the O’Malleys’ quiet house.

  Grace realized that she not only enjoyed singing, but that she really liked being in front of a crowd of people. She was faithful in practicing each day, and within a short time had a large variety of songs that she knew by heart. She sang religious songs for weddings and funerals, as well as popular songs that she heard on the radio. Grace brought the entire audience to tears as she dedicated her eighth-grade graduation song to her brother Denny and then sang “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” She received her first standing ovation that evening. In her heart, she knew she had found something that would make her feel special. She was starting to feel healed finally; she was finding joy again.

  *

  The following year, she went to Fergus Falls High School and felt overwhelmed at the size of the school. She studied hard and received good grades, but never really felt as though she belonged there. Grace longed for Our Lady of Victory with its small classes and all the nuns who loved her. Just before Christmas vacation, the choir director asked her if she was interested in joining a quartet with three other freshman girls. She quickly jumped at the chance to do what she loved most. Quickly, she discovered that the gir
ls not only sang well together but also enjoyed each other.

  SOLA became their nickname. They went on to win competitions and had so many trophies and awards that the school put up a special display case just for them. The girls sang at all the concerts and school plays. Grace loved every minute of it.

  Grace became very close to Emily, officially her best friend. She loved to sit in Emily’s designer bedroom, dreaming of being a star on Broadway. The girls went to the Fergus Theater almost every Saturday afternoon. They saw Singing in the Rain six times. As they walked home, Grace started singing and dancing on and off the street curb. She knew Debbie Reynolds’s part by heart, convinced that it would be her first acting role on Broadway. She even had her hair cut and styled to look more like Miss Reynolds. With her curly auburn hair, big blue eyes, and freckles, she grew cuter each day. Her perky manners endeared her to everyone she met. She soon discovered that she was truly enjoying life again and knew that Denny would be happy for her. Life was now full of possibilities.

  *

  During her high school graduation ceremony, Grace once again brought tears to everyone’s eyes as she sang “To Dream the Impossible Dream.” Graduation was a bittersweet event for Grace. She knew that her family had no money for her to go to college. In fact, they were counting on her to keep her job at Claire’s Dress Shop to help pay some of their bills.

  Right after graduation, Emily was leaving for a month of touring Europe. Both Lindy and Rebecca were heading off to college in late August. Her parents had told Grace that it was foolish to be a dreamer. Now, she needed to accept the realities of life. Her life was not like her fancy friends’; her life was going to be one of hard work. If she worked hard, she could save a little money for some nice things; however, she would probably never be able to afford the clothes and lifestyle that Emily Larson enjoyed.