Another week passed; everything was still the same… Joyce was still lying motionless, except for occasional tears or smiles. Gabriel was still there with her, in spite of the doctors insisting that he rest, take a break. He looked exhausted, but he was unmoved: “Whatever they say, I will never leave you alone here without me. In the past, you left everybody and everything to be with me, and now it is my turn to leave everybody and everything to be with you. I can never be happy without you and probably that is why we have always been together.” But Joyce was not present to hear his heartwarming words. She was off somewhere calm and quiet.
The fragrance of roses, jasmine, gardenia and many different kinds of flowers reached Joyce and brought her back into the present moment. She heard a young girl’s sweet voice praying the rosary next to her. This beautiful fragrance of flowers awoke a beautiful memory. She could almost smell the fragrance of wildflowers and wild thyme bathed in morning dew ascending with the fog and the chirping of birds from deep down the valley towards the heights of the mountains very early in the morning… it was the memory of her family’s vacation. The vacation they spent up on the highest mountains. The views were breathtaking; so beautiful, so grand and the silence of the mountains and the valleys was so overwhelming – like if this silence was sacred, that one would feel almost guilty to interrupt it.
Joyce remembered thinking how someone could come here and see all this never-ending beauty and not connect it directly to its creator, to God. This trip was yet another proof to her about the beauty of God and made her see how beautiful the work of His hands is; even in the deepest forest where nobody can reach there is still beauty.
She remembered telling her little children one day when they were gazing at a splendid view from the trails looking down at a blueish green river which snaked between two valleys full of different kind of trees of many colors, that nobody was here and she didn’t know when the last time that a human eye saw this particular beauty was, yet God kept it beautiful. Somehow she knew for sure that a long time ago God thought to Himself one day a mother and a father with their little children will stand up there and look down, and I want them to see all this beauty to remind them of My beauty. And so God carved these valleys, put each one of these trees in a particular spot and gave them a specific color, let the river flow and finally added some singing birds; it was the most beautiful present of all time.
Also, she remembered the uniqueness of every sunset … every night of the week they spent up on the mountain they went to watch the sunset from a specific, very high cliff where the trees and the valleys went deep down below their eyes and the high mountains surrounded them from every direction. Every night God painted a different sunset for them, each one was more beautiful than the other and when you thought that you just saw the most beautiful sunset you realized next evening that sunsets can be even more beautiful. The only thing which was the same every evening was the sun making its last bow to its Creator and then disappearing behind the mountains with the hope of another morning. Every sunset had different colors; one evening was pink, next evening was orange then purple then red sometimes all these colors together at the same time… and the clouds, the valleys and the mountains changed colors reflecting the color of that particular evening …. every sunset is unique and will never be repeated for eternity.
Joyce was back to the present moment and still heard the gentle voice reciting the rosary. She remembered her three-year old, little Geanna…
“Mommy, will you please teach me how to pray the rosary.”
“Yes, Geanna. Just sit quietly and listen to me and your siblings – and you will learn.” Joyce smiled, remembering all the wrong pronunciations Geanna made, and how she once told Gabriel. “I feel a little ashamed, but these mispronounced words are just too cute to be corrected. I know very soon she will grow out of it but just not yet.”
“Make me doggy ears mommy” and Joyce brushed her little Geanna’s hair and made two little doggy ears; she could see Geanna running all over the house, chanting, “Hail, Holy Queen thrown above…” with her doggy ears flying in the air one to the left one to the right.
***
Suddenly the voice recalled her. Then the voice stopped praying for a short while and whispered: “She smiled at me! Thank you, Blessed Mother, thank you Jesus. I brought you flowers today… I know how much you like flowers.” And then she resumed the rosary, as Joyce’s mind took her down yet another path.
Joyce fought to stay in this moment. It was beautiful, peaceful. She felt that something important was about to happen. But her cloud floated away; she had no choice.
***
She saw herself impatient, struggling with the small services and the many chores required by her growing family.
“Gabriel, I cannot do this anymore. I am done – I am finished.”
“I know, my love, that you had a bad day, but tomorrow is a new day. And before we know it, the children be grown and gone, and we will wish for these busy days.”
“You have no idea what happened today: the baby cried all day long; Geanna made her even cry more, if that is possible; Christelle and Gabriel Jr. argued the whole time; Michael was so upset because his siblings are too loud and there is no quiet place for him to read. It is too chaotic here. I am leaving!”
Joyce began to cry. “Leaving?! Where would you go? I know that you are exhausted. Please, go take a shower and relax. I will finish up cleaning the kitchen and get the children ready for bed.”
“I need a break. I want to get a job outside the home… I am sorry, Gabriel, but I’ve needed to do this for some time.”
Gabriel looked at her for a long time. How I love this woman… She looks so unhappy.
“We will work together to find you a job. When we do, I will quit mine and stay home with the children. We will begin searching for a job tomorrow.” He had barely finished talking when Joyce jumped up and hugged, then kissed him. She was all smiles.