Christopher's Miracle Story: "The look"

Friday, August 16, 2013

"The look"

A "few" days turned into 5 long days at the hospital. Soon after the surgery, Christopher developed an infection at the surgical site, so they had to give him antibiotics through his IV. This meant he had to stay at the hospital a little longer. I hadn't left the hospital since the day he had been admitted, so my husband stayed with Christopher while I drove home to freshen up and get a clean set of clothes.

As I was driving up the hospital parking lot, I saw her walking slowly along the sidewalk. It appeared by the way she carried herself that she was carrying a very heavy load. She looked so tired, and it seemed like she was trying to revive herself by soaking in the beautiful spring sun. She kept looking up as if the "answers to it all" might just be right there waiting for her to reach up and grab them.

I will never forget the "look" on her face. It was one of total fear, sadness, and disbelief. In fact it seemed to emanate from every pore of her body and weigh her down as she tried to walk off the feelings. Suddenly, it occurred to me who I was looking at. She was the mom from Christopher's hospital room. It was her son who was chronically ill. He was going to be a "regular", and so was she.

Now it all made sense. It wasn't that I was trying to eavesdrop, but the room we shared was so small that it was impossible to have any privacy at all. I had heard their story, and they had heard ours. The truth was that their son was chronically ill, and our son was definitely not.

As I continued to watch her, I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. I kept thinking that I was so glad that that would never be me, but I would soon learn the cold, hard truth of the saying "never say never".