The Three Marys
an excerpt

The Three Marys

By

Lin Neiswender

Chapter One

“Take off all your clothes and put this on,” the male nurse said to Marie Therese, handing her a green hospital gown. “I’ll be back in five minutes to prep you. Put your clothes in this plastic bag.” He put the bag in a cubby hole marked Personal Property and left the glass enclosed room, leaving her shivering. It was freezing in the room, so cold she was shaking.

It’s probably to keep down the germs, she thought. Still, the cold struck to her bone marrow. She started to cry, the reality of what was about to happen hitting her all at once.

She’d been strong since the phone call came, summoning her to the hospital, remembering to get her packed bag, call her immediate family and neighbors, set out the pet food for Smokey and Lacey that would be taken to the boarding facility. The goodbye to the dogs had been difficult though. She didn’t want to upset them with her nervousness and fear, so she made it as casual as she could, but inside she was screaming, “Will I ever see you again, my sweet Puppies?” Smokey sensed something was happening and stuck to her leg like glue, even following her out onto the front porch.

“No, Baby, you have to go back inside. Be a good boy and take care of Lacey. She’s old so you take good care of her, OK?” She cupped his silver and white head between her hands and planted a kiss atop it, then led him by the collar back inside the house and managed to lock the door. It was dark and muggy outside and the humidity set her off into a coughing fit that lasted two minutes or more. Finally she was able to catch her breath. She picked up her oxygen and purse and unlocked the car.

Then there was the nerve-wracking drive, cell phone in the right hand, voice dialing family members and her back-up people to tell them things she had forgotten to say. Two hours on the interstate to Orlando with her mind racing faster than the car, was there anyone else she needed to call, anything she had forgotten to do, anything she needed someone to bring her? Would any of this even matter tomorrow, would she even be here for it to matter? She had thrust that thought aside.

The surgery had danced at the edge of her awareness while she focused on the preparations, but now the preparations were done and there were no distractions left. They were going to cut out her left lung and replace it with the lung of a stranger who had departed his or her life and on the way decided to help her here on earth.

Marie Therese focused on the beauty of the gift, the generosity of the family and the love of life of the donor who wanted her to live on for him. Marie decided it was a “him”, she had always wanted a bit more male essence in her psyche and it was said by some that occasionally people received a bit of the donor’s personality with the transplant, discovering new talents or new likes and dislikes that they didn’t have before. She decided she would have more mental strength, more detachment, more cool rationality. Her emotional reactions to life had caused her great pain in the past and she was not eager to repeat them.

Where were Maria and Mary Ann? They were the first people she had called after The Call came, knowing they would share in her joy and her fear. But neither was answering their cell phones, or had left it off the charger or whatever.

It was nearly midnight and Marie Therese felt sick with fear, tears continuing to pour down her face, melting her foundation. Her hands shook so much she couldn’t unhook her bra from the back. She tugged it around to the front and finally managed to get the hooks out of the eyelets and removed it.

She was breathing heavily, sucking in the oxygen like sucking on a collapsing straw, crying making it even harder to breathe. Her lungs made a wheezing sound with each inhalation that could have been heard all the way across the hall.

The nurse, named Martin, she remembered, returned before she had her panties off and the gown on. She held the gown up to cover her shapely breasts as a reflex action.

“Hurry up, Ms. Bennett; we have to get a move on. Your lung is waiting for you and it’s in a hurry. We are on a strict timetable. Do you need assistance?” His face softened when he saw her tear-streaked face.

“It’s normal to be scared, only an idiot wouldn’t be. But everything will be all right. Here, I’ll turn around; you slip out of your panties and get in the gown.” He was as good as his word. Pulling herself together, she sniffed and did as requested, but her breathing still was labored. She was grateful for this attention to her dignity, well aware that it was likely to be in tatters before the night was out, with her business hanging out for all to see. There was no dignity in an operating theater. She stuffed her clothing into the plastic bag and slid it into the cubby hole.

“Sit down here,” he motioned to a chair with a padded arm rest. She carried her portable liquid oxygen with her and sat down. “Here, you don’t need that anymore, we use our own,” he said, removing the cannula from her nose and lifting the oxygen tubing from her face. Martin replaced it with one of the hospital’s own, tearing open a fresh package. “How many liters of flow?”

“Four.” She had been on four liters of oxygen for the past six months since her COPD, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, had taken a severe down turn. It was barely enough but they couldn’t set it higher without causing other problems with her breathing. She retained carbon dioxide in her blood and too much oxygen could suppress her breathing reflex to dangerous levels. It was a Catch-22 situation, she hungered for the oxygen but it was dangerous too.

“There you go.” He slid the loops of air tubing over her ears, inserted the tubes in her nostrils and adjusted the slider under her chin to keep the cannula in place.

“Now I’m going to start an IV in your arm to begin the prep. Don’t worry, you’ll be in lala-land for most of this so don’t be scared. This is just a stick, then we start some light sedation and you’re golden.”

“You better not hurt me,” Marie Therese managed to gasp, “or I’ll clobber you with my Helios,” indicating her portable oxygen setting on the floor by the chair.

Martin laughed and got out a tray from a covered cart. He started opening packages. Marie Therese’s cell phone rang, startling both of them.

“May I get that?”

“I know it’s important, go ahead while I get ready for you,” he said.

Marie Therese made her way over to her purse where it rested in a cubby hole with her clothing, trailing the twenty-five foot oxygen tubing across the room.

“Hello?”

“Thank God, Maria, I was beginning to think I was in this all alone.”
Maria Goncalves tutted, “No no my dear, we would not let that happen to you. Mary Ann is here with me. We were at a party so we had our phones off. I’m so sorry. Where are you?”

“They’re getting me ready now. I’m so scared, Maria, I’m terrified. I thought I’d be ready spiritually but I’m not. I’m afraid I might die.”

“Have faith, Little Bird. Even if God calls you home, you are a fine human being and worthy of acceptance into Heaven. So put fear out of your mind, there is no need of it. Focus on the wonderful thing that will happen soon- you will be able to breathe.”

“Yes, you are right, finally after all these years. No more oxygen. No more wheezing. I can go wherever I like. I’ll be free again. Yes, you are so right Maria.”

“We are praying for you my dear one; I will be calling my prayer chains for you as soon as I get off the phone. Is there anything that we can do for you? Anything we can do to relieve your mind?”

“Would one of you go see Smokey and Lacey at the boarders? I worry about them not getting enough attention and mourning for me, thinking Mommy isn’t coming back. Would you do that for me?”

“Consider it done, Honey. We love them both, and it will be no hardship. We will take them their favorite cookies too. Smokey still loves pumpkin cookies and Lacey likes bits of chicken, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. Thank you, Maria.”

“Here, let me put on Mary Ann. She has something to tell you.”

“Mary Ann, what do you have to tell me?”

“That I’m jealous you’re getting your lung ahead of me, you silly thing. For some reason I always thought I’d go first, now you’re beating both of us. But you need it more, we know that. So we’re not too mad about it. Our turns will come. And to tell you we will be there when you wake up, cheering you on and kicking you in the ass if you need that too. Remember our sisterhood handshake, the love sign with a pinkie-ring twist. That’s your sign on the vent that all is well. We’ll be looking for that from you, remember that.”

“I will. I have to go now, my loves. I love you both so much. God bless you both.”

Maria got back on the phone. “We love you too, and we know God will bless and watch over you. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, keep Marie Therese in your loving hands, give her courage and strength, guide the surgeons and anesthesiologists, the nurses and technicians as they perform this breath-giving surgery, give Marie a speedy and complete recovery, but not as we will but as Thy will be done, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.”

“Amen,” she heard Mary Ann whisper.

“Amen,” she said herself, “amen and goodbye for now, my dears.” She clicked off the phone, returning it to her purse.

“I’m ready now; everyone else is on the road up here. And I’m not afraid now, for some reason.”

“Good, you’re a strong woman. All will be well. Come sit down. Lala-land awaits.” She sat down in the chair and thrust out her arm.