What Matters Most by Gwynne Forster

Author:Gwynne Forster [Gwynne Forster]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-09-14T21:00:00+00:00

“I have an idea, and I hope you’ll find it acceptable,” Jack told Melanie after they had taken care of all the patients.

“Half of our patients are children. Would you be willing to spend a month as a nurse-intern at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis? It would make all the difference to the children we take care of. I’d like you to observe patient care and the new treatments that are coming from the St. Jude research program. I can’t leave here for that long a time, but you could, and we can both benefit from your experience there. What do you say?”

“I’d give anything if I could go there, but who will help you here?”

“I don’t expect to find anyone better who’s willing to work down here. If I can’t get a nurse, I’ll get a medical student who’s on summer vacation. I should be able to get an LPN though. When can you leave?”

She looked at him as if he’d disappointed her. “What’s wrong?” he asked her. “Look. You don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”

“I want to, Jack, but…Are you sure this is what you want?”

The question didn’t make sense to him. He studied her for a few minutes. He hunkered in front of the chair in which she sat staring at her hands. “Melanie, I will miss you every second that you’re in Memphis, and I want you to know that no one can take your place, neither in this office nor here.” He pointed to his heart. The separation could prove to be what they both needed. At the end of it, they would either be starved for each other or greatly relieved.

“Don’t get any ideas about my replacing you,” he said. “Do you understand? It won’t happen.”

“I could be ready to go in a week,” she said, letting her hand stroke his hair.

He got up. “Wonderful. Let’s go someplace and get a slice of pizza. I’m starved.”

“Me, too, and I want some raspberry sherbet.”

“I want some peach sherbet,” he said, locked the office and walked with her to his car.

“This has been a fantastic day, Melanie. I’m going to call Alice Hawkins tomorrow morning with the good news for Midge.”

“Who’ll keep her other two children while she’s in Tennessee?” she asked him.

“Friends and neighbors promised to take care of the children. When you get there, Midge will be delighted to see a familiar face.”

Once seated at a small bistro table in the back of the pizza parlor, Jack said, “Six months ago, I would have headed for the club and eaten supper there. These days, I almost never remember that the place exists. There’s a saying that everything changes, and I suppose people also change. I know I have.

“My dad had a meeting at lunch today with the five men who’ve put up the money for the clinic, my lawyer and the two of us. It went so smoothly that I still can’t believe it. They’ll be silent partners—that is, they’ll have no say in clinic practices, policies and procedures.

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