The butle of the hopital wa a welcome ditraction a I opened my new patient' chart and headed for her room. My on, Eric, had jut brought home a diappointing report card, and my daughter, Shannon, and I had argued again about her getting a driver' licene. For the next eight hour I wanted to throw myelf into helping people who I knew had much more to worry about than I did.
Rebekah wa only 32, admitted for chemotherapy(化学疗法) after breat-cancer urgery, When I entered her room it took me a moment to pot her amid the bouncing form of three giggling little girl.
I told Rebekah I would be her nure and he introduced her huband, Warren; ix-year-old Ruthie; four-year-old Hannah; and two-year-old Molly. Warren coaxed the girl away from their mother with a promie of ice cream and aured Rebekah they would return the next day.
A I rubbed(擦) alcohol on her arm to prepare it for the intravenou line, Rebekah laughed nervouly. "I have to tell you I'm terrified of needle." "It'll be over before you know it," I aid. "I'll give you a count of three."
Rebekah hut her eye tightly and murmured a prayer until it wa over. Then he miled and queezed my hand. "Before you go, could you get my Bible from the table?" I handed her the worn book. "Do you have a favorite Bible vere?" he aked. "Jeu wept. John 11: 35." "Such a ad one," he aid. "Why?"WWw.hAOZuowEn.com
"It make me feel cloer to Jeu, knowing he alo experienced human orrow."
Rebekah nodded thoughtfully and tarted flipping through her Bible a I hut the door quietly behind me.
During the following month I watched Rebekah truggle with the ravage of chemotherapy. Her hopital tay became frequent and he worried about her children. Meanwhile I continued to contend with raiing my own kid. They alway eemed either out or holed up in their room. I mied the day when they were a attached to me a Rebekah' little girl were to her.
One day when I entered her room, I found her talking into a tape recorder. She picked up a yellow legal pad and held it out to me. "I'm making a tape for my daughter, " he aid.
I read the lit on her pad: tarting chool, confirmation, turning 16, firt date, graduation. While I worried how to help her deal with death, he wa planning for her children' future.
I often wondered what I would ay in her place. My kid joked that I wa like an FBI agent, with my contant quetion about where they'd been and who they'd been with. Where, I thought, are my word of encouragement and love?
For a time it had eemed Rebekah' chemotherapy wa working. Then doctor dicovered anothermalignant(恶性的) lump. Two month later, a chet X-ray revealed the cancer had pread to her lung. It wa terminal. Help me to help her through thi, I prayed.
She uually waited until the early hour of the morning to record the tape o he could be free from interruption. She filled them with family torie and advice，trying to cram a lifetime of love into a few preciou hour. Finally, every item in her note had been checked off and he entruted the tape to her huband.
It wa three o'clock one afternoon when I got an urgent call from the hopital. Rebekah wanted me to come immediately with a blank tape. What topic ha he forgotten? I wondered.
She wa fluhed and breathing hard when I entered her room. I lipped the tape into the recorder and held the microphone to her lip. "Ruthie, Hannah, Molly?thi i the mot important tape." She held my hand and cloed her eye. "Someday your daddy will bring home a new mommy. Pleae make her feel pecial. Show her how to take care of you. Ruthie, honey, help her get your Brownie uniform ready each Tueday. Hannah, tell her you don't want meat auce on yourpaghetti(意大利式细面条). She won't know you like it eparate. Molly, don't get mad if there' no apple juice. Drink omething ele. It' okay to be ad, weetie. Jeu cried too. He know about adne and will help you to be happy again. Remember, I'll alway love you.
I hut off the recorder and Rebekah ighed deeply. "Thank you, Nan," he aid with a weak mile. "You'll give thi one to them, won't you?" he murmured a he lid into leep.
A time would come when the tape would be played for Rebekah' children, but right then, after I moothed Rebekah' blanket, I got in my car and hurried home. I thought of how my Shannon alo liked her auce on the ide and uddenly that quirk, which had annoyed me o many time, eemed to make her o much more preciou. That night the kid didn't go out; they at with me long after the paghetti auce had dried onto the dihe. And we talked, without interrogation(审问), without complaint, late into the night.