By Jocelyne Ross

Word Count: 566

Rating: G

Summary: While Joyce lies comatose, she relives her life with her husband and family, as they try to wake her up.

Many more days passed. Joyce is still unconscious, and Gabriel is still next to her praying, hoping, begging her to come back, telling her how much he loves her. Every day the nurses and the doctor come to check on Joyce—and every time they told Gabriel that the situation does not look good: If she does not come back soon, then she never will. Gabriel keeps praying and hoping, never losing hope.

***

Days later Gabriel’s voice reaches her again. She hears him talking with a young man whom he called Michael.

Oh, yes, Joyce thinks, Michael is the name of my first baby boy, who is now nine years old. How I wish I could see him.

She desires to see his beautiful face, blonde curly hair, and she knows that he must be missing her too… Michael has always been so attached to her. Joyce remembers the day he was born, even the moment he was born, at that moment or the split of a second when he came out into this world, Joyce felt as if heaven and earth touche d each other for a brief moment . She had felt heavenly joy embracing her and everyone present in the room felt it too , and at that moment she knew with every fiber of her being that babies are a gift from God. With every baby afterward she had the same experience and sensation; and the feeling stayed for days afterward as if she were floating somewhere between heaven and earth.

Forgetting for a moment Gabriel’s voice in the present, Joyce’s mind traveled back to that day when Michael was born. Joyce had decided to have him at home, in the comfort of her bedroom. It was so beautiful, so peaceful. Gabriel played music that was a mix of their favorite classical pieces and lit many candles around the room. In few hours they were holding their beautiful little Michael in their arms; looking at him and not believing their eyes; his tiny little pink wrinkled body, so fragile, snuggled comfortably in their seemingly huge arms; his beautiful little eyes looking at them, so trusting. Yet she remembered that she and Gabriel realized that day with some kind of fear that neither of them had ever taken care of a baby before… But they learned quickly, gaining much from successes and failures.

Joyce had been so worried about not having enough love to give Michael. She thought she had given Gabriel her husband all the love her heart could give. She soon realized how her heart was growing; with every new baby she found her heart was capable of giving more love and more tenderness than she had believed possible. She marveled at that fact.

***

Now she is in the front yard of their first home, playing with Michael under the sprinkler. Gabriel is watching them from their home office window and laughing. Yet she is drawn back by her husband’s voice; she realizes she has been daydreaming.

She wants to come back to them—to the here and now—but somehow she cannot. A tear drops softly, quietly, from the corner of her eye, and she feels a gentle hand wiping it away.

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