Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: The Game of Life (09/11/08)
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TITLE: Second Chance | Previous Challenge Entry
By Lynne Eliason
09/17/08 -
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I walked into the hospital room not really knowing what to expect. “Come quickly,” Dr. Yang had said. “She won’t live until morning.” I had come quickly, but was in a surreal state of mind. This couldn’t be happening. Just two weeks earlier, my mother had sat at our Christmas dinner table in her usual cranky mood and we had chided her for being ornery. Now the soft beeps of the heart monitor and the whoosh of the ventilator were the only sounds she made. She lay there in a coma, unresponsive and dying. Her skin was an ashen yellow against the white sheet. I touched her lifeless hand. I smoothed her wavy brunette hair, thinking I’d never noticed the gray strands in it before. “Please mom, we still need you.” Maybe she’d hear me.
Dr. Yang, a pretty Asian woman, quietly stepped into the room and gave me the scenario. The physician was professional, yet personable. My mother desperately needed a liver transplant. Her liver was simply done functioning. There was little hope, as liver donors that match often take weeks to become available. There wasn’t that much time. “It will take a miracle,” she said, “You must decide by morning if you will cease her life support measures.” I was numbed by the words. “Please God, don’t make me be the one to make that choice.”
My sister, Cindy, arrived. She had just witnessed a horrific car accident on the way to the hospital with several casualties. We prayed, knowing there must be others on this very night that prayed for loved ones to live. Mixed feelings prevailed about praying for someone else to die, so that our own mom could live. We put it in God’s hands. It was truly His game.
Toward daybreak, Dr. Yang all but waltzed into the room. “You girls surely must have asked for that miracle. We have a liver donor and it is a good match. This never happens this quickly. God must really want to give your mother a second chance.” Nurses followed her in and immediately set about prepping Mom for the liver transplant. Hope had come alive. That was enough to sustain us through the hours of the risky lengthy surgery. Our own lives became a myriad of prayers, coffee, catnaps and endless phone calls.
We sat vigil by Mom’s bedside after the transplant. A new attitude of life filled the room. Multiple IV monitors surrounded her, offering vital fluids to acquaint her with the new liver. We were amazed to see her skin tone return to its natural tanned color. Tears of joy washed away our fears when she awoke and demanded water for her dry mouth.
The following months were not easy. Mom struggled with the mind set that a transplant patient must have. She wanted to know who the donor was, but the donor registry wouldn’t allow that. We’d remind her that we were ever so grateful that she lived, even though it meant someone else had passed on. God had made that choice in His infinite wisdom.
She lived 15 more years, not always quality years, but years that God gifted with a purpose. She was able to welcome 4 more grandchildren, bake her famous caramel rolls many times, read several great novels, and profoundly beat me in Scrabble often. She fulfilled the mother role we hadn’t been willing to relinquish, even though at times she was demanding and grumpy. She was still our matriarch in a family of ups and downs.
She seemed happiest when she was playing the church organ on Sunday or the piano in the nursing home where she last resided before she died. A talented pianist, she loved the look of pleasure that her music produced. Only then, did she seem to accept herself and be content with the liver transplant.
While sorting through some of her things after she died, I came across a newspaper clipping. It was about the accident that my sister had seen the night of Mom’s transplant surgery. The headline read, “Gift of Life Given By Musician” and the article elaborated on how a gifted pianist had lost his life in the wreck, but had donated his organs. The clipping was wrapped in a song sheet for “Amazing Grace.” My mother must have believed she had received his liver. His music lived on through her second chance. I’m so glad God got to make that choice.
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