Holly's Heart Collection Two (68 page)
Without blinking an eye, she said, “Come right this way.” We followed her to a private waiting area around the corner and down the hall.
Saundra looked up with a tearstained face. “Oh, Holly…” She stood up and rushed over. “I’m so glad you’re here.” Spying Sean, she thanked him for getting a taxi for me. “I’m sorry I left you at home that way,” she said, still holding my hands. “It was just such a frightening time, I—”
“I understand.”
Sean slipped out to the hall, giving us privacy. I let Saundra hug me, and I cried in her arms. “How’s Daddy?” I finally blurted out.
She held on to my hands as we sat down. “The doctors are with him now.” She glanced up at a TV monitor high on the wall. “That’s your father’s room.”
The heart monitor continued its monotonous beeping—a good sign. “Daddy’s heart?”
She nodded. “I doubt that he’d be overjoyed about being televised like this.”
I cracked a smile briefly. “Are they going to do bypass surgery?
She seemed hesitant to respond. “Two of his arteries are ninety percent blocked. From what the cardiologist says, they’re trying a clot-busting drug on him first.” She sighed audibly. “If that doesn’t work, they may consider angioplasty.”
I was afraid to ask. All of it sounded hideous.
Saundra seemed to understand my reluctance to inquire. She let go of my hands and used her own to demonstrate the surgical procedure. “Angioplasty is used to open a coronary artery. A small balloon is inserted into the blood vessel, compressing the plaque against the wall of the artery.”
I tried not to visualize what she was describing, maybe because she kept using the word
blood
as in blood vessel and blood work.
Frightened and worried, I went back into the hall to find Sean. “It’s okay for you to come in,” I told him.
He frowned. “Are you sure?”
“You don’t have to leave, do you?” I asked. The truth was I didn’t want him to go just yet.
“Not really,” he replied. “If Saundra stays the night, I’ll be happy to help you get home.” He was so eager to do something.
The three of us flipped through magazines and talked occasionally, waiting for the doctors’ decision. After another hour passed, I was beginning to wonder if something had gone wrong. Why was it taking so long?
Finally several doctors came into the private waiting area. I held my breath, wishing with all my heart this day might have a happy ending.
LITTLE WHITE LIES
All the doctor talk of blood and balloons—and that horrible hospital smell—had made me queasy. Quickly, I left for the rest room while the doctors informed Saundra of the results of Daddy’s EKG and lab work.
Inside the ladies’ room, I splashed cold water on my face. Leaning over the sink, I closed my eyes. “Dear Lord,” I prayed, “I’ve learned not to hold on when it’s much better to let go and completely trust you for things like this. I really can’t do this hospital scene…I’m so scared for Daddy. And for me. Please help the doctors and Saundra know what to do to help. Amen.”
When I finally got it together and returned to the waiting room, Saundra and Sean were nowhere to be seen. One of the nurses came in and said Sean had headed back to the beach house to get Tyler and Andie. “Your stepmother is in the prayer chapel just down the hall.” She touched my arm, guiding me in the right direction.
I hurried to the chapel door. Holding my breath, I inched the door open and saw Saundra kneeling at the altar. A large crucifix hung on the wall above her. I tiptoed into the peaceful place, making my way soundlessly toward the altar to Saundra.
She turned slightly as I knelt close beside her.
“This is all so strange to me,” she whispered, glancing up at the form of Christ on the cross.
I listened intently.
“I guess I’ve been wondering about God all my life,” she explained, “but I was never truly able to bring myself to believe in a personal Being. But just now, as I was praying, I found myself talking to Him as though He were someone real, someone who cares about what happens to your father.”
I wiped the tears from my eyes and found it curious that she simply let hers drip off her face. Searching in the chapel, I found a box of tissues on a chair beside the wall. I offered her one.
“Thanks, Holly,” she said, without the dear. It was comforting to hear my name without her automatic tag.
She spoke of their first meeting—hers and Daddy’s—with fondness, and even though I always thought I’d resist hearing this story, I found myself eager to listen. “Your father was floundering emotionally when I first met him. We happened to be attending the same support group. He was almost shy, definitely reserved. Desperately lonely.”
Lonely for us? For the family he’d left behind?
She continued. “After several sessions, your father found enough confidence to share his story with the group. Such a sad, despairing tale. He told how he’d abandoned his family, how he’d been selfish and self-centered, how he’d hurt his wife and children. My heart went out to him.” She paused, taking a deep breath. “You see, Holly, I’d been hurt desperately, as well, only not in a similar way….” She didn’t reveal the reason for her divorce, but I knew that her former husband had done the leaving—two weeks before Christmas, no less!
I touched her arm. “You helped Daddy through his pain, didn’t you?”
She nodded. “We helped each other. Now we must do the same,” she said, her head down. “If Christ can make himself real to your father, stubborn and strong-willed as he is, maybe there’s something to all this God business.”
I wanted to help. “Sometimes it’s hard to trust,” I said. “But if you ask the Lord to become real to you, I know He will.” I put my arm around her. “I believe something else, too.”
She began to cry again.
“I believe Daddy is in very good hands.” By the tentative smile on her glistening face, I knew she understood.
Much later, the surgeon, still wearing his green scrubs, met all of us in the waiting room. “Robert is stabilized and in very good condition. He held up well during the angioplasty, and we’ll know better tomorrow how things stand after we do a follow-up EKG and some lab work.” His serious expression transformed into a wide smile. “Things look very good at the present time.”
Tyler stood up. “Will my dad be able to go Boogie boarding with me again?”
“That’s certainly a good possibility,” the surgeon said, chuckling.
“So you’re saying he’s going to be fine?” I asked while Andie draped her arm around my shoulders.
The surgeon nodded.
I heard Saundra whisper, “Thanks, God.”
After a while Sean returned again, this time bearing sacks filled with hamburgers and fries—definitely not appropriate food for the cardiac patients in the units surrounding our little waiting room. But the emotional day had depleted all of us, so we were thankful for Sean’s gracious gesture.
“Here, let me reimburse you,” Saundra said, opening her purse and pulling out a wad of bills.
Sean put up his hands. “The treat’s on me.”
Just then the head nurse came in and told us we could see Daddy. Each of us would have three minutes with him. Saundra first, then me, then Tyler. Only one family member could be in the room at any given time.
We were all so anxious to see him, crossing our fingers about the procedure. If his arteries stayed open, they’d have him up walking soon, and later doing the treadmill thing. Maybe, just maybe, Daddy would get to come home on Wednesday. If so, we’d have him all to ourselves for five whole days before Andie and I were scheduled to leave for home.
While I waited my turn, Sean and I went for a short walk down the hall to the sunroom. It was still light out, and the ferns and plants scattered around made the room pleasant and airy.
“I guess we need to talk,” I said as we sat near one of the windows.
Sean smiled, which made his eyes twinkle. “Good news, I hope.”
“Well, yes…and no.”
He looked puzzled.
I continued, “Well, yes, we should continue being good friends, and no, I can’t go out with you…at least, not yet.” I explained that my mom had always said I should be at least fifteen before I actually dated anyone.
“I’ll wait,” he said calmly. “You’re worth waiting for, Holly.”
I swallowed. “Are you for real? You mean you’re not going to try and change my mind?”
“Why should I?” His eyes studied mine. “Friendship is one of the highest forms of love.”
Who said anything about love?
“Okay, it’s settled, then,” I said, feeling fabulously comfortable with this guy. “When I get back home, I’ll send you some letters.”
“Probably not as often as
I
will.”
“We’ll see,” I said, grinning.
Quickly, he glanced at his watch. “I think it’s your turn to see your dad.” We hurried down the hall, and when our hands bumped slightly, Sean didn’t reach for mine. There would be plenty of time for that—with or without Sean. For now, it was great to have someone who cared but wasn’t pushy. A true friend.
Standing outside Daddy’s room, I leaned against the wall, feeling hopeful. Saundra and I had shared a very special moment in the chapel. I was beginning to see who she was on the inside. And Andie? Well, there was no telling how far she and I were destined to go as friends. Hey, we’d been through a living nightmare together and survived.
Saundra came out just then, her eyes bright with joy. “He’s doing wonderfully.”
“Are you sure?” I whispered, glancing around the corner at Daddy, all wired up with monitors and IVs and things.
“Don’t worry,” she reassured me. “He’s fine. Go give him a kiss.”
“Okay.” I tiptoed into Daddy’s room and stood beside his bed. Touching his hand, I whispered, “Daddy?”
His eyes fluttered open. “Holly-Heart,” he said. “You’re here.”
I leaned over and kissed his forehead.
“Guess your old man better slow down a little, eh?”
“For starters,” I said. “We want you around for a very long time.”
He squeezed my hand. “Oh, I’m not going anywhere.”
“Promise?”
Solemnly, he nodded. “I promise.”
I couldn’t help it—a tiny giggle escaped my lips. What a fabulous day this had turned out to be.
Sean showed up on Sunday. We sang a few hymns softly for Daddy, and when we came to “Amazing Grace,” Saundra joined in. Later, she and I took turns reading to him from his Bible.
Daddy, being a highly motivated fellow, couldn’t be kept in bed for long. By Monday morning he was up walking the halls and phoning Carrie long distance. On Tuesday, he passed his first treadmill test and was moved to a regular floor. Wednesday, after lunch, we brought Daddy home. He was discharged to a cardiac rehab clinic nearby, where he’d have to check in for therapy.
Andie and I took turns helping Saundra cook his fat-free diet. Tyler played waiter, serving him breakfast on the deck, picnics on the beach, and supper by candlelight in the dining room. Andie and I played Daddy’s Bible board game and beat him three times in a row.
Sunday evening, Saundra pulled a trick on him and hid her newly written prayer list in his napkin. “What’s this?” he remarked, holding it up as he sat at the head of the elegant table.