The Friday Night Date Dress by Talena Winters

Author:Talena Winters
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: inspirational romance, interracial romance, sweet romance, grief, loss, family life, second chances,
Publisher: My Secret Wish Publishing
Published: 2015-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Three years ago

Melinda and Robert waited anxiously in the hospital corridor as the doctor slipped silently out of her father’s room and closed the door. Sounds of nurses and orderlies going about their duties filled the sterile space with soft rustles and muted murmurs. In the cancer ward, there weren’t many loud noises, unless they were groans of pain or suffering.

The doctor was an older gentleman with a reassuring, grandfatherly manner, but right now, his face was grim.

“I’m sorry I don’t have better news,” he said. “The cancer has progressed more quickly than we expected. Your father is fighting hard, but he doesn’t have much left to fight with. I’m afraid you need to expect the worst.”

Melinda’s hand covered her mouth, and her eyes were wide and moist.

Robert put his arm around her shoulders to steady her. “How long, Dr. Bezz?” he asked.

“It’s possible that he has several more days. However, he most likely will not last the night. All we can really do now is to try and keep him comfortable.”

After a history of robust health, Herman Myers had been diagnosed with liver cancer only three weeks before. He had gone into the emergency room with flu symptoms that seemed especially severe. By morning, they’d been told he had advanced liver cancer, and there was very little that could be done.

The weeks since the diagnosis had been a blur. The wedding which Melinda and Robert had been in the final stages of planning was put aside as she spent most of her days—and many of her nights—at the hospital. Others had come and gone with well-wishes for Herman’s recovery, but only Robert’s family, and Pastor Ralph McKay and his wife Edith really understood just how dire the situation was. Robert’s sister Nadia had been by to sit with Melinda every few days, and Pastor Ralph had come to see his friend nearly as often, although Herman was seldom lucid enough for a visit. Sometimes Edith would come, too, just to make sure that Melinda was remembering to eat and give her a grandmotherly shoulder to cry on.

Robert had taken the last week off of work to spend time with her and relieve her from her bedside vigil so she could get some rest. But although she had barely slept and had lost considerable weight over the last month, her altered looks were nothing compared to the transformation she had watched her father go through. She would never have believed that three weeks could change someone’s appearance so much, but as they entered the hospital room, the frail man on the bed seemed a cruel and ghostly caricature of the man who had been her pillar for the last sixteen years . . . since they had both lost the woman they loved most.

She sat down by his bed and touched his hand. The skin was yellowed and paper thin, crumpled like a glove that was too big for the hand it covered.

Herman’s eyelids didn’t even flicker.

“Hey, Dad,” she said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.