She laid there. Her face was as blank as I wished the bill
was. I hadn’t seen her smile since the
day her father died. To make things
worse, Molly had leukemia. My Molly, how could this happen? She had been battling this disease for 3
years now, almost half of her life. It
hurts me so much to see such a young girl suffer. She is only seven; this is
too much for her. I also have another
daughter, Maya. She is 4 years old and
looks up to Molly more than the stars in the sky. But I guess it makes sense. I have three jobs to try and pay off all of
the medical bills and still support my two beautiful daughters so I am not
always there for them; especially at this time of year. It’s getting closer and closer to Christmas,
so I have to let Molly and Maya down yet again; we can’t afford presents.
“Mommy, Ms. Anne said there’s only
two more days ‘til Christmas!” Maya
burst into the room, followed my sister, Christine. I tried to force a smile onto my face, but I
could not manage to; instead, I choked back tears. Then Maya ran to the window and shouted “Mommy! IT’S SNOWING!” I looked at Molly whose face had suddenly
filled with color and emotion. “Mom, can
we go play in the snow?” Molly
asked. It was the first thing she had
said in days and it excited me until I realized, she couldn’t. “Maybe later girls,” I replied trying to
sound hopeful. Molly’s smile disappeared
and the color in her face retreated once again.
I left the room for a moment
leaving the girls with Christine. I had
to find the doctor. I franticly made a
loop around this wing of the hospital.
When I returned, I found him just about to walk into Molly’s room. “Wait!” I yelled. The doctor turned around to face me. “Just the person I needed to talk to.” He said trying to maintain a smile on his
face. We walked away from Molly’s room
and the doctor took me to his personal office.
I had only been in here once before; the day we found out that Molly had
leukemia. I tried to stop myself from
panicking, but I couldn’t. The doctor
calmed me down and began to speak gently to me, stating the facts first. “I know that having a child sick is every
parent’s nightmare. I have children too,
and if anything ever happened to them, I don’t know what would become of
me. We both also know what an amazing
child Molly is; she has been battling this disease for 3 years now.” I started to break down again but the doctor
stopped me and continued talking.
“Listen to me, this has not been an easy three years for you or the rest
of your family and I understand that. There
is something very important you need to know.”
I could feel my heart pounding, my throat swelling. “Molly’s cancer has spread. We will do the best we can to try and help
her, but her only chance of living through this; is a miracle.
I broke down completely. I cried until there was no water left in my
body. The doctor tried to comfort me but
it was no use. He had just told me that
my daughter was probably going to die!
How was I going to live happily for the rest of my life with only half
of my family? Once I had brought myself
together a little bit more, I remembered why I wanted to talk to him. I
slowly began “Um, Molly wants play in the snow.” A smile spread across his face when I said
this. “She already is.” He replied. “What, where?” I asked as excitement began to
grow inside of me. He lead me into
Molly’s room and directed my view out the window. Sure enough, Molly and Maya were playing in
the snow in front of the hospital.
“Thank you” were the words I
whispered before grabbing my coat and running to my girls.
When I came outside, I saw that
there was a nurse sitting by Christine, making sure that everything went well;
it certainly was going well. Both Molly
and Maya were smiling and laughing as they laid in the snow moving their arms
and legs back and forth to create snow angels.
“Mommy, look what Molly taught me how to do!” Maya said running towards me
and pointing at her snow angel. I
remember when Molly was her age; she was happy, for the most part, until she
was diagnosed. I felt my tears coming. I forced myself to smile at Maya. Then I walked over to Christine, gave her arm
a little tug, and asked the nurse to watch the girls for a moment. I pulled Christine into the hospital and we
stood in the middle of the lobby.
Christine looked at me with question, but didn’t say a word. I looked
her in the eye, with my own eyes starting to form tears. “She’s going to die.” I barely got the words
out before I broke down. There was no
way to calm me down now. Christine had
tears rolling down her face too, but I could tell she was trying to stay
strong, for me. She embraced me as I
sobbed, trying to comfort me. But I was
past the point of comfort. I was past
the point of truth. I was past the point
of everything.
About
an hour later, Christine came back into the hospital with the girls. I had calmed myself down enough so that Molly
and Maya wouldn’t be concerned. I slowly
stood up from the chair I had been seated in.
It seemed to take more effort than usual. As we walked Molly back to her room, the
girls couldn’t stop talking about their outdoor adventures. It made me glad to know that they were happy. I don’t think I have seen such a smile on
Molly’s face since before she was diagnosed.
We sat in Molly’s room drinking cafeteria hot chocolate. Molly’s, of course had been made special for
her, but she didn’t seem to mind. Molly
was happy and that’s all that mattered.
Later
that night after Molly went to bed and Maya had gone home with Christine, I
found myself kneeling next to Molly’s bed.
I observed her features: dirty blonde hair, soft pale face, light pink
lips; she was beautiful. I rested my
elbows on the edge of her bed and began to pray.
“God, I know that your plan is
always best. I know that you are always
right. You are amazing. You have given me my life and the lives of my
daughters and I thank you for that. I
guess I just come away with one question though. Why would you want to take Molly away from me
so soon? She is too young. She is too young. She is too young….” I began to cry
again. I leaned forward into my
hands. “Why her?” I cried for at least 5 minutes before a nurse
came in and Molly looked up into my eyes.
“Mom, why are you crying?” I
didn’t have a chance to answer her before the nurse began to start her
check-up. “How are you Miss Molly?” “I’m very good.” Molly replied. But she didn’t sound very good. She sounded sad. All I wanted was for her to be happy, but I
couldn’t even do that. I tried to hold
back more tears as the doctor did the check-up.
They were too strong. They
defeated me. The tears poured down my
face as I watched her sit there. I was
sitting in a chair in the corner and I hoped that Molly wouldn’t see me crying,
but with my luck, of course she did. She
didn’t say anything until after the doctor had left. “Mom, before the doctor started talking, I
asked you a question!” “What was your question
Molly?” I asked hoping she would think of a new one. “Why are you crying?” “I’m not crying.” I said quickly wiping the
tears from my eyes. “Mom, just tell me
why.” “Molly, I’m crying because I love
you.” “Well if you love me, isn’t that
happy, not sad?” “I love you so when I
see you laying there in that bed, I feel helpless, there is nothing I can do to
make you better, and I hate that, Molly.
I just wanted you to have the best childhood, but now you have had more
treatments and surgeries than I have had.
And Molly, I’m crying because I love you.”
After Molly fell asleep, I had to
leave. I had to go shopping for
Christmas. This year I had $10 to spend
on each girl. That is a double of what I
had last year to spend. It was December
24th and that meant Christmas was tomorrow. I had to pick out things for the girls
quickly so that I could get back to Molly.
Maybe this year I could get them each a shirt instead of the mittens
they had to settle for last year. I
quickly decided on matching shirts that had the word angel printed across the
front with sparkly wing on either side of the word. I brought them back to the hospital and
wrapped them in some extra newspaper. I put them under the white board that had
a Christmas tree drawn on it.
The next morning Maya came running
into the room at 8:00AM. Christine
followed slowly behind her. “Maya was very
excited.” Christine stated as she tried to force the corners of her mouth into
a smile, but she really hadn’t slept much and it was very obvious. Maya had
made her way over to Molly’s bedside saying “Molly, look at the presents mommy
got us! I guess Santa forgot about us
again this year too, but it’s ok. Merry
Christmas Molly!” Then a nurse came in to help Molly out of bed and Maya ran
over to me and gently asked, “Mommy, can me and Molly open our presents
now?” “As soon as Molly is ready,
sweetie.” I told her as I looked into her bright, beautiful, lively eyes. They held excitement. They held happiness. They held innocence.
Molly was seated on her bed. Her little feet were dangling off the side of
the bed. Maya brought both of the
presents over. She handed Molly her
present and jumped up next to Molly.
Molly looked at me, then back at Maya and told her “On the count of
three. One..” “Two” Maya counted
eagerly. “Three” They screamed together and then they tore off the newspaper to
reveal the shirts. “I love it, Mommy!”
Maya exclaimed as she ran over to give me a hug. As I hugged Maya, I saw that Molly was still
sitting on the bed. Her shoulders were
slouched and she clutched the shirt in her right hand. I released Maya, walked over and sat down
next to Molly. “What’s wrong sweetie?” I asked her.
“Mom it’s not fair.” “I know
Molly. I try my best to get you girls
something you’ll love but I-” Molly cut
me off, “No Mom. It’s not that I don’t
like the present, it’s just that I can’t wear it.” “Now why wouldn’t you be able to wear it
Molly?” I asked, taking the shirt from her hand and popping it over her head,
right on top of her hospital gown. Molly
smiled. “Thanks mom.” I gave her a hug and held on tight, until I
heard Maya behind me “Time to sing Christmas songs!!” “Slow down Maya. We have to eat breakfast first.” I told her.
She began to giggle. Then her giggle turned into a laugh. By then, Molly and Christine had started to
laugh. I found myself smiling. I hadn’t smiled a real smile in at least 3
years. It felt good for a moment, but it
all melted away when the nurse walked into the room. She brought me back to reality. She woke me up from my dream.
Our relatives came that morning and
all had a great time with the girls. I
got a chance to relax a little. The
girls were excited because they only got to see them every three years, since
they lived on the other side of the country.
For Maya, this is the first time she would be old enough to remember
anything. As the day went by relatives
came in and out of the room, one after the other. By 5:00PM, they were gone. Every last one. Even Maya and Christine had gone home. Once again, it was just Molly and me for
dinner.
As we ate, like usual, we
talked. But today was different. Molly asked “What’s heaven like?” “I don’t know Molly. I’ve never been there.” “Will I go to heaven?” “You would have to ask God that. Only He knows.” Molly put down her fork, got out of her bed
and knelt next to it. I watched her
pray. I could almost see God caressing
her hair. As she prayed, I began to
cry. It was a beautiful moment. Molly climbed back into her bed. She folded her hands again, and continued
praying. After a few more minutes of
praying Molly called for me. I walked
over to her bed and smiled down at her, tears still pouring down my face. She
was still wearing her new shirt over the top of her hospital gown. “I love you
mommy.” “I love you too, Molly.” And
then she was gone.
The nurse came in seconds later to
find me crying over the precious body.
She quickly came to my side to comfort me. But nothing could comfort me. Nothing could heal this wound. Nothing could bring back Molly. I looked up for a moment and glanced around
the room. There was everything but
her. There was here favorite teddy bear
on the bed. There was pictures of our
family hanging on the board. There was the
projects Molly made when she was bored.
There was everything but Molly.
I spent the rest of the night right
next to Molly, praying. Praying for
Maya. Praying for Molly. Praying for
everyone. At about 4:30AM I started to
sort through Molly’s things. Almost
everything she owned was at the hospital with her. With every stuffed animal, necklace, sock, or
other miscellaneous things I found, I
held it for a moment; I absorbed every last memory out of it.
By the time that Maya came home in the afternoon, I had the entire room
cleaned out. As I was looking at the
empty room, I heard Maya. “Mommy?” I ran to her and hugged her. I held her tight. When I let go, she looked confused. Then I realized that Maya didn’t know about
Molly yet. I took her by the shoulders
as I crouched in front of her. “Maya,
there is something I need to tell you.”
“Mommy, what happened to Molly’s room?”
She tried to push her way into the room but I held her back even though
I was crying again. “Maya, listen to me
sweetie. Molly isn’t here anymore.” I had to stop because of my tears. “Is she all better?” Maya asked sounding very
excited. “No, Maya.” I struggled to get the words out. “Where did Molly go then, mommy?” “Heaven.
Molly went to heaven.” I broke
down after that last sentence. I hugged
Maya and she hugged me back. After a
couple of minutes Maya asked “When is she coming back?” I told her, still sobbing “She is never
coming back, Maya. Molly died.” Maya began to realize what was happening even
though she could not comprehend the situation entirely. Maya began to cry. I hugged her again. Maya pushed away and walked into the
room. She examined everything, imagining
it the way it used to be. Then she
noticed that there was still something of Molly’s in the room. She reached up onto the bed and grabbed
Molly’s new shirt.
~*~
I walked slowly into the church,
holding Maya’s hand. We went to the
front where Molly laid peacefully in her casket. A pink flower rested perfectly in her
beautiful dirty blonde hair. She wore a
long sparkly pink dress that went past her feet. She looked like a princess; my princess. I knelt before her, Maya copying my every
movement. I folded my hands and prayed
silently. Dear God, Thank you for the
time you gave me with Molly. She was the
light of my world. Her face shining like
the sun. Every time she smiled, it made
the sun and the stars look dull. She was
my everything. I trust that you will
take good care of her in heaven. I love
her so much. Tears flooded my eyes once
again. “I love her so much.” I repeated
softly. “Me too.” Maya said, mimicking
my tone. We stood up and I began to walk
away. “Wait! Mommy!” I heard Maya say from behind me. I turned around and walked back over to wear
she was. She put her little backpack
down on the ground and started looking through it. A few seconds later, she pulled out a
shirt. It was Molly’s shirt. Maya climbed up by the casket and laid the
shirt on top of Molly. I went to help
her. We made sure that it looked perfect
and then backed away to admire our work.
I stroked Molly’s hair. “Mommy,
now Molly is a real angel.” Maya told me
happily. Hearing her words put me to
tears again. “Yes Maya. Now Molly is a real angel.”