Many more days passed. Joyce was still unconscious, and Gabriel was still next to her praying, hoping, begging her to come back, telling her how much he loved her. Every day the nurses and the doctor came 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 kept praying and hoping, never losing hope.
***
Days later Gabriel’s voice reached her again. She heard him talking with a young man whom he called Michael.
“Oh, yes,” Joyce thought, “Michael is the name of my first baby boy, who is now nine years old. How I wish I could see him.” She desired to see his beautiful face, blond curly hair, and she knew that he must be missing her too… Michael had always been so attached to her.
Joyce remembered the day he was born, even the moment he was born. At that moment or the split second when he came out into this world, Joyce felt as if heaven and earth touched 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 was in the front yard of their first home, playing with Michael under the sprinkler. Gabriel was watching them from their home office window and laughing.
Yet she was drawn back by her husband’s voice; she realized she had been daydreaming. She wanted to come back to them – to the here and now—but somehow, she couldn’t. A tear dropped softly, quietly, from the corner of her eye, and she felt a gentle hand wiping it away.