nurse looked at Aunt Dorothy. “Is it all right to discuss the diagnosis or test results with your niece?”
Aunt Dorothy swallowed the ice in her mouth. “Of course.”
“We’re still waiting for test results, so we can’t be sure,” the nurse began. “We’re concerned about her lungs, of course. They’re congested, which is why we’re limiting fluids for the moment, at least until we get the results of her chest X-ray. And we’re concerned about her heart. The symptoms she’s exhibiting are all consistent with CHF, but they may or may not indicate she’s had a heart attack. The electrocardiogram was inconclusive, but we’ll know from the blood test whether or not she actually suffered one.”
Charlene furrowed her brow. “CHF?”
“Congestive heart failure. According to what we’ve learned so far from her primary physician, your aunt was diagnosed with CHF over two years ago. We have some brochures about it that you can read, if you like, and Dr. McDougal will be glad to answer all of your questions once there’s a final diagnosis.”
Charlene looked at her aunt. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Aunt Dot shrugged. “They’ve got fancy names for everything these days. All that CHF means is that my heart is slowing down and doesn’t pump as good as it did when I was younger. I’m eighty-one years old. Everything is supposed to slow down. For all the money they charge, the doctors should tell me something I don’t know.”
Charlene shook her head, but directed her attention to the nurse. “I’ll take one of those brochures, and I’d like to speak to Dr. McDougal as well. Do you think they’ll be admitting my aunt, or will I be taking her home tonight?”
The nurse patted her arm. “I wouldn’t plan on taking her home tonight. We’re hoping to transfer her to a regular room, as soon as one becomes available. We’ll know more when we have all the test results, which won’t be until morning. If you’ll excuse me, I need to check on another patient. Just buzz if you need me to come back,” she instructed before leaving the room.
“Honestly, I don’t mind staying. They’re taking good care of me,” Aunt Dorothy admitted. “I’m sorry you had to drive all the way back here, but I wanted to talk to you about my papers and such. Just in case.”
Charlene cocked her head. “Just in case?”
Aunt Dorothy sighed and patted the side of her bed. “Sit with me. I need to tell you where I keep my important papers, just in case I don’t get to go back home at all. And I need you to stop at the bank first thing in the morning, if you wouldn’t mind.”
“I have money, but I shouldn’t think that you’d be needing any,” Charlene said.
“No, but I do need my living will,” her aunt whispered, and closed her eyes.
Chapter Three
I n less than a week, every aspect of Ellie’s existence had been flipped upside down and twisted inside out. Organizing the chaos in her life was her most urgent priority, and she had only today to do it.
She closed and locked the door to her office late Wednesday afternoon at the end of her first day back at work. She was carrying a briefcase full of student papers that the substitute teacher had collected for her to grade, along with a list of parents who needed to be called because she had missed parent conferences for the first time in her career.
She tried to be content, knowing that the substitute teacher was fully certified in language arts and was hoping to be hired for the upcoming year if there was an opening, so Ellie’s students had been left in very capable hands. She also tried to resist the sense that she’d let down her colleagues—she’d done her best to handle the overflowing papers in her mailbox and on her desk by relegating them into stacks labeled: To Do, To Distribute and To File.
The only thing not overflowing when she had returned had been her voice mail. The entire system had been shut down now for three days, much to the amusement of the faculty and staff, who watched the failed attempts to repair the system by the novice technicians the district had employed instead of calling in seasoned professionals.
Ellie hurried down the empty school corridor to the parking lot and carefully avoided the mini piles of dirt and dust left by the custodians as they swept their way from classroom to classroom. At her car, she stuck her briefcase in the trunk next to a small suitcase packed with comfortable clothes for her mother to wear home from the hospital tomorrow, and then plopped into the driver’s seat. The afternoon was so warm she was tempted to put down the top on her convertible, but since she would only have to put it right back up again at the hospital, she decided against it…for all of two seconds.
Grinning to herself, she put the top down anyway. After all, what good was having a convertible if you didn’t use it when you could?
She headed out of the parking lot and turned toward the avenue. At a red light, she kept time with the sound of her blinker by tapping her left foot as her mind raced back over the past few days and ahead to the next few weeks. Starting tomorrow, her routine would change. Drastically.
With the diagnosis of a mild heart attack confirmed, Ellie’s mother would be released from the hospital in the morning. Tests had also confirmed that she had coronary artery disease, CAD, and given her advanced age, the doctors had agreed against an aggressive course of action, deciding to treat her condition with only medication, a change in diet and a mild exercise program. If all went well, after recuperating for a few weeks, her mother would be living back in her own home again, although none of the doctors would speculate on how much time she might have left.
In the meantime, Rose Hutchinson was moving in with Ellie, which was a bit like inviting the wolf to move into the chicken coop and expecting the chickens to celebrate.
Ellie accelerated the instant the light turned green, hung a left and headed south toward the hospital. Before tomorrow morning, she had to turn the small den on the first floor of her stately old Victorian into a bedroom for her mother, put fresh linens in the downstairs bathroom and clean the house. She also had to stock the pantry with appropriate foods for a woman with heart disease, which meant a trip to the grocery store.
Somehow, she had to find time as well to stop at her mother’s house for more clothing and toiletries. Grading papers and preparing next week’s lesson plans would simply have to wait until the weekend.
Feeling overwhelmed and definitely in need of a friend who might help her face the challenges ahead, she eased into the visitors’ parking lot at Tilton General, took a ticket from the automated machine and found the last open parking spot at the far end of the lot. Then she turned off the ignition, pulled out the key and bent forward to rest her forehead on the steering wheel.
Reorganizing her life at home and at work would only mean her days would be temporarily more hectic. Coming face-to-face with the fact that her mother’s illness was progressive and ultimately terminal only increased her anxiety. She had called both of her sons twice to inform them about their grandmother’s condition. Alex and Richard had each promised to keep in closer touch by telephone and to come home soon. In the meantime, Ellie knew that if she hoped to establish a loving relationship with her mother, the time was now.
After praying for the gift of the time she and her mother needed together, Ellie put the convertible top up again, locked her car, grabbed the suitcase out of the trunk and headed across the asphalt parking lot.
Inside the hospital,
