Cannot Wait to Get to Heaven - Fannie Flagg [32]
When she walked back over to do the washing, she noticed Elner’s birdbath and thought, “Somebody’s going to have to keep that filled with water.” And then she suddenly remembered something else. “Who’s going to feed that blind raccoon his dish of ice cream and vanilla wafers every night?” Then she remembered something else. Every afternoon Elner had fixed an old black Labrador named Buster a cheese sandwich. “Lord,” Ruby thought, she would do the sandwich, but Merle was going to have to feed the raccoon. She was scared the thing might bite. Elner had not been scared of anything and had let those squirrels come into her kitchen and jump right up on her counter where she kept food. As her friend and as a health professional Ruby had warned her, “Elner, squirrels are nothing but big rats with furry tails and carry all kinds of diseases,” but Elner never seemed to worry about germs. “Come to think of it,” thought Ruby, “right up until this morning when she was killed by wasps, she had never been sick a day in her life.”
The Cause of Death
10:55 AM
Norma, who was being tended to by several nurses, was now sitting up and talking but still having a hard time. She kept repeating over and over, “I knew it was going to happen someday, but I just can’t believe it.” The hospital chaplain on call, a Baptist with a bad haircut, in a brown polyester suit, stopped in and offered his card and his condolences. A short time later Macky walked back into the room, after having called their daughter, Linda.
Norma looked up. “Did you reach her?”
He nodded. “She’s coming. She said she would get here as soon as she could.”
“Was she upset?”
“Yes, of course, but she’s worried about you and she said to tell you she loves you.” Just then the doctor came back with a chart and sat down beside Norma and Macky and continued giving them all the information he had. He said that it seemed that as far as they could count, her aunt had received over seventeen wasp stings and must have gone into immediate cardiac arrest caused by anaphylactic shock, and then he added that the fall could have caused some brain trauma, but not enough to kill her, and so as of this moment, the official report read: “Cause of death: cardiac arrest due to severe anaphylactic shock.”
“Did she suffer?” asked a tearful Norma.
“No, Mrs. Warren, I can guarantee you she most probably never knew what hit her.”
Norma wailed, “Poor Aunt Elner, she always said she wanted to die at home, but I don’t think she meant out in the yard, not like this and in that awful old robe….” Macky put his arm around her as she blew her nose.
The doctor continued. “Now, Mrs. Warren, just so you know, you have the official cause of death, but if you are not satisfied, we can still do an autopsy.”
Norma looked at Macky. “Do we need an autopsy? I don’t know, should we? Just to be sure?”
Macky, who knew the details of what was involved, said, “Norma, it’s up to you but I don’t think so, it’s not going to make any difference one way or another.”
“Well, I want to do the right thing. Let’s at least wait until Linda gets here.” She looked at the doctor.
“Can we do that, Doctor, wait until our daughter gets here?”
“When would that be?”
“It should only be a couple of hours…maybe less, right, Macky?”
The doctor looked at the clock. “All right, Mrs. Warren, I suppose we can do that, and in the meantime, if you and Mr. Warren care to see her, I can take you back.”
Norma quickly said, “No, I want to wait until Linda gets here.”
The doctor nodded. “That’s fine, whatever you decide, just tell the nurse if and when you want to go in.”
Macky, who had said little, now said, “Doctor, I’d like to see her now, if that’s OK?”
“Sure, Mr. Warren, I’ll take you down if you want.”
Macky looked at Norma. “Will you be all right?”
“Yes, you go on, Macky, I just can’t right now.”
The nurse said, “I’ll stay right here with her, Mr. Warren.