7. The Sun

Walking across the hospital parking lot, I received a phone call from the ICU.

The dreadful weather outside was not nearly as depressing as the mood inside the hospital. The waiting room besides the ICU was filled with desperate parents and commotion arose each time another child was admitted. One afternoon, when I was standing beside the doors of the ICU, a small child was transferred out of the unit in a blue body bag. It was a horrible sight. Another day we saw a very sick little girl being handed back to the parents. Clearly, she should have remained in the hospital but the doctors told the parents to take her home. We later heard the child needed expensive treatment that her family could not possibly afford. When the parents took their daughter home, they knew she would die. One of many such cases, we were told. Terrible. We felt miserable and feared Naomi’s chances of survival would indeed be slim.

At night, when all other parents had left the waiting room, things would quiet down. Around 10pm, we also left but waited nearby until the lights were turned off. Then we returned to the waiting room and stayed there throughout the night. We wanted to remain as close as possible to Naomi who lay in the room right next to the waiting room. We managed to do this the first few nights until one of the nurses requested us to leave. She suggested us to stay in the small hotel meant for visiting medical staff which was situated beside the hospital. It was as close as we could get so that is what we did.

Staying as late as possible in the hospital waiting room, then retreating to that hotel room and returning to the waiting room early in the morning became our daily routine. This way, days of gloomy weather outside and severe anxiety inside crawled by like there was no end to it. Every hour felt like an eternity. Then one day, when I left our room and walked across the parking lot to the hospital, I received a phone call from one of the nurses in the ICU. Naomi had opened her eyes! The nurse told me this was a good sign and indicated Naomi was coming out of coma. I was so happy to receive this news.

Standing in the middle of the parking lot, I breathed a sigh of relief, looked up to the sky and was blinded by the sun which at that very moment appeared from behind the parting clouds. “Here comes the sun”, I thought.

Then I ran as fast as I could to Paulina to tell her the good news.