“Hello Joyce! Do you recognize me?” asked the doctor, rushing to her side.
“No,” Joyce hesitated, afraid to give the wrong answer.
“Good, good. You are not supposed to know me at all. Actually, the first time I saw you, you were already in a coma.”
“Coma?!” asked Joyce, scared of the very word, not to mention the reality.
“Well, unconscious, then.” The doctor seemed surprised. He looked toward Gabriel.
“Doctor, I did not tell her anything yet. I called you immediately to help her stay awake. I do not want her to go back to the… Can you excuse us for a moment, dear? Doctor, I would like a word with you outside.”
***
In the hallway, Gabriel told the doctor that he wanted to be the one who explains everything to Joyce. He asked the doctor to take care of her physical needs, while he takes care of her emotional stress. While he was still talking to the doctor, voices interrupted them:
“Daddy, is everything alright?”
“What’s wrong with mom?”
“Does she remember us now?”
“Children, dear children, relax, I believe that everything will be fine. Just give us a little more time. When she is ready to see you all, I will call for you. I love you.”
“We love you too dad.”
***
After the doctor had finished his examination and left, Gabriel pulled a chair up to Joyce’s bedside and then took Joyce’s hand. Her fear eased as he gently asked her, “Tell me Joyce, what do you remember?”
“I remember everything! I met you when I was seventeen years old, and you were eighteen. You said you’d have to marry me just so you could kiss me – and you did. We got married one year later, and we came to live here. Then we had Michael the next year.”
“And you’re certain that Michael is nine years old now?”
“Yes, of course… Gabriel Jr. is seven and Christelle…”
“But if Michael is nine years old, then I must be twenty-nine years old. Do I look as if I’m twenty-nine?”
“Well, perhaps not… you look different. But you are still my handsome husband, though you are a bit…”
“Older?”
“Yes, but still handsome! But Gabriel, dearest Gabriel, what has happened to me?”
“Two months ago, we were at home, and the whole day you were complaining about a severe headache. We thought it would go away, but it didn’t. Later on, you sounded confused, asking where the children were. I then decided to take you to the hospital. When we arrived here, you were already unconscious. “
“I have been here for two months?!”
“Yes, and would you believe that our children are all grown up? our Michael is a twenty-nine-year-old young man, Gabriel is twenty-seven, Christelle is twenty-six, Geanna is twenty-three – even our baby Carmel just turned twenty?”
“No… no…”
Her eyes wide open and frightened, she couldn’t believe his words. “But how?”
“Apparently during your coma, you lost most of your memory. Yet the presence of the children and I seemed to awaken some parts of your memory, the parts which are dearest to your heart: their childhood. That’s why you think they are still children! Yes, when they were little, life was so crazy but so joyous. I believe that God could have created them to be independent soon after birth but instead He made their infancy and childhood longer because He knew that this period of life is the most precious one: when they are totally dependent on you and trusting you.”
“This is so hard for me to accept… A few days ago, I was holding baby Carmel in my arms, singing to her while you were playing in the snow with the children.”
“Yes, that was almost twenty years ago. I had forgotten about that. I made them a sleigh and pulled them all around – how they screamed and laughed… Precious time; it’s gone, just memory now, beautiful memory.”
“No…,” she began to cry.
He hugged her tightly. “Your memory may come back; give yourself some time. God will help us through this difficulty.”
“I am sure He will, but in a way, I’m not sure I want my memory to come back. I want to stay in the past, which seems like the present to me. I am confused… I need time to adjust to all that has happened.”
“The children are waiting outside… Let me know when you are ready to see them.” He smiled.
“I need to rest right now. I am tired.” She was exhausted. She turned her head to the other side and closed her eyes.
***
But sleep would not come for Joyce. After a short while, she asked Gabriel, her head still turned to the other side, “How long have they been waiting outside?”
“At least a couple of hours.”
“This has been hard for them too, I’m sure.” She sighed, still looking away while Gabriel caressed her hair.
“Yes, very hard – especially today. They are confused too and afraid – afraid to lose your love and affection.”
“They will never lose that. Of course, I love them!” she declared passionately, turning her face quickly toward him.
“You are crying! Don’t cry, dear Joyce! Your tears are much too precious to waste on that pillow. Together we will overcome this. We have each other and the children.”
“Tell me about our life together,” she asked excitedly. “I want to hear all about it! anything you say can be very helpful.”
“Well, we are still a happily married couple! I believe the reason for our happiness is that we always try to remember each other’s qualities and strong points, instead of wasting precious time on attempting to fix each other’s imperfections. Of course, you may remember that we did forget this rule sometimes, especially when the children were young, but we always got back on track.”
“What about the children?”
“They are good, good children and as we taught them since they were little to be open to God’s call for their life and be open to His will, two of them are considering the religious vocation while the other two are happily married with children of their own, the little one is still in between crossroads.
“It has been a blessing to be grandparents, we get to enjoy again the innocence of little children and the joy of having them around without having to do all the work involved. Our hard work in raising our family did pay off immensely. There is a lot to share and say but …”
“I should not let them wait much longer. Come, dear Gabriel, help me sit up and fix up my hair. I want them to see me at my best.”
Gabriel got her a mirror; she hesitated to look in it but she reflected if aging happened to Gabriel it better happen to me too. She looked and she saw this middle age woman looking back at her with frightened eyes … the eyes, there is something about the eyes – even though they look familiar they also look so different – tired, black circles and some wrinkles had sneaked quietly all around the eyes and made them look older and tired. Her face was pale, her cheeks thinner, her mouth still had its youthful smile. She raised the mirror up to her hair; she smiled seeing more then few gray hairs circling her forehead. She wondered why they call them gray hairs when they are so obviously white – and when did these gray hairs sneak into her dark hair? They probably waited till she was so busy raising her family, and they began one hair after another changing color from dark brown to white or gray. Oh well, Gabriel mentioned that she was a grandmother now … all the better. She cannot imagine a grandmother without gray hair. Having lived a full life from marriage to having children to becoming a grandparent, aging loses its power over you, you are not upset or obsessed with it anymore because you have more important and real things to look for.
She fixed up her hair, gave him back the mirror. “How do I look?” she asked sadly, knowing full well the gray in her hair and soft wrinkles around her eyes.
“You look lovely, my sweet girl, like a dream come true.”
“Thank you, dear.” She smiles, feeling as if his amazing love paled in comparison to any beauty the years had stolen away.
“I love you, Joyce. Thank you for marrying me – and thank you for coming back to me.”
“You can never get rid of me,” she teased. Then she smiled lovingly at him. He bent down and gave her a good, long kiss.
“Gabriel…the children,” she said, remembering they had been waiting so long.
“Alright, alright! I’ll call them.” He rushed toward the door, opened it and before leaving, looked back at her smiling and nearly shouted: “I love you.”
“I love you too.”