Eleven Days: An Unexpected Love (2 page)

Dr. Kemper and
his
nurse walked in and interrupted
her
thoughts. He looked at
her
with
sadness and spoke, barely audible. "It's time."

Lana
nodded, but
her
heart
denied the reality of it all.
All the close loved ones shuffled into the room, one by one and
gathered around James.
Lana
held James' hand, shaking.
She
alone held
his
hand. As the
doctor pushed the
button, the beeping slowed down until it flat lined.
Lana
expected him to jerk, fight to live. But he didn't. He just slowly drifted away.
His
heart stopped,
her
heart pounded as
his
last heartbeat slipped from
his
lifeless body.
She
took a deep breath as
h
is
heartbeat streamed from
his
fingers into hers. Tears trickled down
her
cheek and dripped on the bedspread.
Oh my Lord, I can't let go, I just can't and I don't want to
lose him
.
Her
hear
t felt
heavy
with
sorrow.

"Come on
Lana
, you have to let go. You know
that
is what he
would
want," said Sharon consolingly.

How dare
her
to ask
Lana
to let go of
his
hand.
Sharon
didn't even attempt to hold
his
hand the last few seconds of
his
life.
Lana
hated
her
,
she
hated the doctor, and
she
even hated James. How dare him die and leave them all, he had no right to
die
.
Lana
wanted to say goodbye and talk
with
him one more time. It
was
all
she
could do to hold back
her
anger. "It's so hard,"
she
said
with
curtness, and
she
didn't want to look at Sharon. How could
she
have signed
that
paper?
Her
emotions overtook rational thinking.

Lana
knew
she
shouldn't be hard on Sharon, because James had been brain dead for several days.
T
hey all loved him so much
and
that
made it even more difficult
.
Her
mind
was
in a state of reckless emotions.

The doctor pronounced him dead, and the nurse wrote down the details of time, cause of death and date.

That
's it.

It's over, j
ust like
that
.

Lana
walked out
the door
.

Chapter 3

October 9, 1:30 p.m.

When
Lana
walked out
her
front door
she
realized what a sunny day
it was
for the funeral. The temperature in Chattanooga
hovered
around eighty degrees. It
was
much warmer than normal,
with
only a slight breeze. The trees still held on to their fall leaves and they
had
already turned to the bright colors; orange, red, purple, and
every other color imaginable.
Even
with
all
t
his
beauty surrounding
her
,
all
she
could think about
was
her
own sorrow. How could today be sunny when
she
felt
the deepest and darkest hurt
she
had ever experienced in
her
life? The sun shouldn't be shining today and
she
wished it
would
hide behind the clouds,
Lana
wished
she
could hide behind the clouds.

Once
she
arrived at the cemetery
she
sat in
the
truck a few minutes, contemplating leaving.
She
couldn't,
she
trudged on
, unwillingly
.
Lana
looked over at all the other graves at the cemetery and wondered how their families managed to get through their own tragedy. Then
she
saw an infant's tombstone she
thought.
If
t
his
little baby's
parents
can get through t
his
,
I can as well
.
That
one tiny tombstone gave
her
courage.

As
she
got closer to the grave
she
fixated on James' cas
ket, it s
addened
her
knowing
his
body lay
in there, and soon he
would
be put in the ground. He
was
too young for t
his
fate of eternity, fifty
was
too young. All graves should be like New Orleans, above the ground. Hell
fell
below the ground and Heaven
rose
above the ground, and families so freely send everyone to hell.

Thank the Lord for the
chairs to sit on, or
she
might have collapsed. Everyone around
her
solemnly sat there,
and like
Lana
they were drained. The oddest thing, what
she
remembered most, almost everyone wore black. Whoever started
the
tradition of wearing black to funerals?
Her
grandmother, a devout Pentecostal Christian, told
her
years ago. "Death is a celebration. Our loved ones have moved on to a better place, and
that
's a time to celebrate." Today of all days
she
thought of
that
and wondered.
If death is such a celebration then why don't we wear party hats and party clothes to funerals instead of black?

Sharon interrupted
her
thoughts by putting
her
hand on Lana's and leaned in to w
his
per. "Look at the view James will
have forever." In the distance
the beauty of Lookout Mountain looked
breathtaking, and James
would
have loved the view. The sun smiled on the sheets of multi-colored leaves and the wet summ
er made the colors more vibrant.

Lana
knew a
ny other day
she
might have been
in total cont
entment looking at the mountain, but n
ot today.
S
he
nodded knowing how much he loved the mountains. "He
would
love t
his
place,"
Lana
w
his
pered.

The deep gray casket sparkled
with
the sun beating down on it.
She
thought he
would
have
prefer
red
a red casket
that
sparkled. The red one looked more like a sports car and he loved sports cars, Corvettes. Then
Lana
pivoted
her
eyes up to a beautiful majestic mountain in the background.
She
thought. "
My precious cousin, t
his
will be your beautiful view for eternity.
"
She
lowered
her
head, and quietly wept.

*****

After the funeral everyone gathered at James and Sharon's house. People
Lana
knew and didn't know were boisterous
with
their opinions about death. Their opinions really got on
her
last nerve.
She
didn't want to deal
with
their epiphany of wisdom on how
she
should handle
her
grieving.

Instead of dealing
with
them,
she
decided to adhere to a more surreal surrounding, the front porch.
At the end sat
a great big swing to sit on
and it's on t
he far end of the porch. No one sat out there,
not even the children.
She
would
have complete solitude. The swing creaked when
she
sat down and it made a struggled squeak when
she
slightly went back and forth, in a slow rhythm.
She
smiled when
she
thought about what James
might
say at a time like t
his
. "The swing is telling you
that
you need to lose weight."

People were coming and going, and some
she
didn't know. They nodded an acknowledgment as they saw
her
.
That
suited
her
just fine because
she
was
content sitting alone. Swinging and listening to all the sounds of outside
made
her
heart content
. In the distance
she
could hear kids playing kick ball in the street, taking advantage of the last few days of the warm weather. Three houses down, an older man
mowed
his
yard for the last time t
his
year. Inside dishes were banging as people made their plates of food.
Lana
kept swinging in a slow rhythm.

With
in a few minutes Sharon walked some friends out and
she
saw
Lana
sitting on the swing.

As
Lana
watched
her
,
she
noticed
Sharon
had more gray than brown in
her
shoulder length hair. Through the years
Sharon
gained a little weight, but
she
did have three kids. Gravity did take its toll on
her
midsection. But some of the chubbiness
was
from being so short
she
couldn't be over five feet tall and
she
didn't have the long torso to help hide
her
weight. Even
with
all
that
has happened
she
still walked
with
some perkiness during
her
mourning. And thank God
she
changed out of
her
black dress.

The guests left and
Sharon
walked over and sat
with
Lana
on the old wood swing.
Lana
slowed down a tiny bit as Sharon sat down
next to
her
. "How are you?" Sharon asked while crisscrossing
her
legs.

The squeaki
ng swing struggled a little bit
and it
was
a little heavier to swing, but it didn't miss a beat. Even though it whined,
Lana
had no intentions of stopping. "I've seen better days. I'm a strong person and I will get through t
his
, I just have to figure out how."