I said about a bad feeling about Thomas, and, truthfully, I still cannot shake it. I just don't want to spoil your happiness Jessica. Besides he seems to be held in very high esteem by this community, and everyone seems to like him, so it must just be me.”
“Oh, Mama! You don't even know if Thomas is going to propose, and you haven't asked me if I would accept him if he did!” Jessica replied, unable to prevent the blush that tinted her delicate cheeks.
“Oh yes we do know he is going to propose!” Jessica whirled to face her father as he interjected this bit of news.
“Yes, yes indeed we do.” He replied seeing the surprise on her face. “As a matter of fact, he asked me for permission last Sunday afternoon after church. I told him that I wouldn't stand in your way but it was totally up to you as to whether or not you accepted his proposal.”
“Papa! Do you mean to tell me that he asked you three days ago, and you haven't said one word to me until now?”
“Now, Jess don't get so riled up about it. If you don't want to marry the boy all you have to do is say so.”
“Papa maybe even I do not know what I am going to say! Why ever wouldn't I want to marry him?”
“Just take your time, that's all I say. I don't have anything against the boy, one way or the other. I'm just not any hurry to lose my only daughter.”
“I do promise I will take my time, and I am in no rush to get married.”
“Good girl. Now where are the boys? We have work to get done and the hands have already started.”
No sooner had he said this than the two in question stumbled sleepily into the kitchen and took their places at the table.
“Good morning sleepy heads.” Lilly greeted her sons Tommy and Jacob. Tommy looked a great deal like her with his pale blonde hair and blue eyes. He had just turned a gangly seventeen. Jacob was nearer to his father in looks and was the baby of the family. He was nine years old and growing like a weed. The boys answered in unison as they took their chairs.
“Morning, Mama.”
“Didn't, think you boys would ever get up this morning. Why the hands have been working for hours I think.”
“Sorry Papa. I was up late watching the men bring in the corn from the south parcel. We'll be working the middle parcel today I take it?” Tommy queried, diving hungrily into his breakfast.
“Sure will, now eat up, and let us be getting on with the day.”
After breakfast, Jessica began clearing the table and getting the dishes washed and put away. When she opened the back door to shake the crumbs from the tablecloth, a chill wind struck her face, and she shivered as though a cold hand had struck her. She quickly closed the door and began putting away the last of the dishes. Lilly came back into the kitchen and sat down at the table. Jessica turned to speak to her when suddenly Lilly bent over and moaned. Jessica dropped the dish in her hand and rushed to her mother, kneeling down beside her, noting how pasty white she looked. She cried, “Mama, what is wrong? It isn't time for you to go into labor yet, what is it?”As she questioned her mother Jessica looked down, saw the crimson stain spreading across the floor beneath the chair, and was on her feet and out the door screaming for Papa before she even realized that she had moved.
She rushed back to her Mama's side and pleaded with her, “Mama, please. Tell me what is wrong. Oh Please, please tell me how to help you Mama. You know I have only helped deliver two babies.”
Seeing that Lilly was unable to answer her questions, Jessica got her out of the chair and gently laid her on the floor. Saying a silent prayer over and over in her mind she ran for a comforter and pillow. She was still praying and hoping that she could help her mother through whatever was to come when she heard her father's footstep on the porch. John entered the kitchen, took one look at his wife and carefully lifted her into his arms and carried her across the sitting room into the bedroom. When he gently lowered her to the bed he turned, his face white and grim, and yelled for his eldest son to ride to the Bidwell farm and see if Doc Hansen was there and if not to find him wherever he was. Tommy hesitated at the bedroom doorway his eyes wide with fear as he looked at his Mama lying so pale and still on the bed. John exploded, bellowing like never before, “ride boy! Now! Ride like you have never ridden before and get that doctor here!”
Tommy raced from the house, and was quickly on a horse and flying out of the yard. He rode like he had devils chasing him, his face pale and fear showing wild in his eyes. His chest was heaving and tears rolling down his face as he prayed aloud, “oh please God, not my Mama! You gotta make her alright. Please God, don't let my Mama die.” He prayed over and over, too frightened to realize what he was saying, or that he was screaming it aloud as he rode.
John felt utterly helpless as he looked down at his wife. He felt as though a great weight was crushing down on him, crushing his world, because Lilly was his world. She had been his world for over twenty wonderful years now.
Frozen with fear, Jessica stood in the doorway watching the scene, as though she were removed from it. She jumped as if a shot had sounded when her Papa yelled at her. “Help me Jessica, help me, we have to do something for her! You, you’ve helped deliver more than one baby around here. Now, help me, I don't know how to help her, what I need to do!”
The agony in his voice broke through to Jessica's panic filled thoughts. She stumbled into the room, and to the bed where her Mama was beginning to moan. If possible, she looked even paler than she had before, with a blue tinge to her lips. Pain must be wracking her body because she was starting to moan and writhe on the bed Oh God, Jessica thought, looking at the blood staining the bed. How can anyone lose so much blood and still be alive? The thought had only barely formed in her mind when the full horror of what was happening struck Jessica like a blow. Her Mama was not going to live. She was dying right before their eyes. She quickly removed Lilly's clothing and covered her in blankets because she was shaking with chills now. She examined her enough to know a hemorrhage of this magnitude was far beyond any nursing skills she might possess, but still she kept trying... trying to do anything that might help. Anything that might save a life that was as dear to her as her own.
She could not stop the hemorrhage and despite some feeble contractions, there was not enough strength in Lilly to bring the child into the world. This birth was all wrong, there wasn't even any dilation. Finally, in desperation, Jessica attempted to deliver the child as she had seen the Doctor do on another occasion. It did not take her long to realize this was not going to prove successful either, and she rose wiping the blood from her hands and arms. Finally, in total despair she knelt beside the bed, and did the only thing that seemed left for her to do. She prayed, tears streaming down her young face and the heartache showing on her delicate features as she looked at her Mama, knew she was losing her, and felt an agony like she had never known existed.
Later that afternoon Doc Hansen stepped from the bedroom and faced Lillian's family. He was a caring man and this part of his work as a doctor was one that he detested and dreaded. He was going to have to tell this man and these three children, that a woman, they all loved so dearly was no more. Lying in the bedroom he had just left was a beautiful gentle and loving woman, not yet in her prime. Her life cruelly taken from her, when she had not yet seen her thirty-ninth year. He faced John.
“I'm sorry John. Nothing I could do, and even if I had been here when it happened, it would have been too late. I am so very sorry.”
John looked at him in disbelief, and, with a hideous bellow of, “NO!” He bolted from his chair and through the bedroom door. Following the slamming of the door, they heard
