Folly Beach - Dorothea Benton Frank [123]
Nurse Rosol turned to us and gave us a thumbs-up. Before I could even process the fact that we had gone from near-death to thumbs-up, she came out to speak to us, followed by the others.
“She’s fine,” she said. “She’s absolutely fine.”
“What happened?” I said.
I was still reeling. Nurse Rosol dug in her pocket and pulled out a couple of tissues, handing one to me and one to Patti.
“This happens all the time. Respiratory arrest. It’s basically a blockage in the airway, usually mucus. The BIPAP machine forces air in, moves the blockage, and then she can breathe. She’ll probably not need the BIPAP for more than an hour. I gave her a good dose of Ativan to make her relax and help her tolerate the machine. She’s breathing normally now so that’s a very good sign. I just want to have the doctor take a look at her.”
“Does this mean she won’t be coming home tomorrow?” I asked.
“Not necessarily but the doctor will make that call, not me. My guess is he’ll want to keep her for another day just to be sure she isn’t going to have another episode. Remember, the antibiotics are going to take care of the mucus. And believe me, this is a pretty common occurrence. I’ll be right back.” She went back to her station and picked up the phone, presumably to call the doctor.
“What do you ladies want to do?”
“I don’t know,” Patti said.
“I think we should stay until they take that thing off of her face, don’t you?” I said.
“Patti? How does my future sister-in-law take her decaf coffee?”
“Any way my future brother-in-law thinks I would like it,” she said and actually smiled.
So did I.
“I’ll be right back,” he said and disappeared down the hall.
“What a graceful, elegant man, Cate. I think you’ve found the real love of your life.”
“Me too.”
“And you know what’s funny?”
“What?”
“Well, if I understood everything you were telling me about Dorothy and DuBose, you know, how she gave him all the credit for her work and was always promoting him and never herself? And she was the woman behind the man?”
“Yeah?”
“He’s going to do that for you, Cate. He’s going to help you become a playwright. You’re going to have a whole new career. And even though he pointed you to where all the clues are about the Heywards’ private life and even though he will probably help you through the whole, entire process, I’ll bet you anything that he won’t take one ounce of credit. He loves you, Cate. It makes me so happy to see you with someone like him.”
“Thanks, Patti. I am really in love. It’s a little scary.”
“Honey, it can’t be any scarier than Addison, okay?”
“Yeah, he was pretty much the benchmark for scary husband.”
“But I have to ask you something.”
“What’s that?”
“What race is John?”
“His grandmother was an Inuit. Canadian. So he’s part Inuit, I guess. But he sure is beautiful, isn’t he?”
“Yes, he’s gorgeous. Whatever he is, his DNA is the perfect genetic cocktail.”
“You have no idea, sister, you have no idea.” Patti shot me a look of oh ho! And what secrets have you not told your only sister? and I added, “That’s all I have to say!”
The night flew by. We drank coffee and the medical staff came and went. Aunt Daisy slept, they removed the mask, and when we were comfortable that she was out of danger, we left the hospital to drive home.
It was pouring rain in torrents and the wind was gusting, swinging the traffic lights and bending the palmettos. I was glad that John was driving. I couldn’t see the road five feet ahead of us. But it was late and there wasn’t much traffic so we just drove a little slower. When we got home I told him not to get out, that we’d be fine and he didn’t need to get soaked to the skin. I was exhausted, and despite the fact that I was not looking forward to telling Ella what we had witnessed, I felt so lucky and so very blessed. I could say that my life was coming back