Now, the Big Wait

Dad, Steph, Kate and I waited in the small Radiology check-in waiting room, while the Espositos and the Brickers went to Family Surgical Waiting. After about 20 minutes, a nurse appeared to escort us back to where they had prep'd Mom.

She was in a 3-bay, white prep room with a couple of medical techs at desks and digital equipment lined along the walls. Each patient area was cordoned off with those thin, sheet-like curtains. A lady with a neck brace was in the first bay, sitting on the bed. There was no one in the second bay. Mom was in a hospital bed in the third bay. She beamed a plucky smile as we came in. She somehow had evaded the lipstick police--she still had her makeup on.

We each told her that we loved her. Dad prayed for her and her surgical team, and then Mom prayed. I don't remember what she said. I didn't want to close my eyes. It seemed like too much of a sacrifice to be so close and not to take her in. With the white hospital blankets gathered under her chin, her tanned face almost floated above the white sheet that covered the bed. Her eyes closed in prayer, I watched her and could only think that she seems much too young and beautiful to be going through all of this.

We hugged and kissed her. Somber, but hopeful. Glad to be proceeding. Steph, Kate and I left. Dad and Mom spent a few minutes together.

The nurse did not want to commit to a time period for completion. We expect it will take two or three hours, but we don't really know.

We're camped out in something called the Surgical Family Waiting Room. It's filled with dozens of those ugly hospital-vinyl chairs. The hypnotic drone of daytime television is coming somewhere from the corner of the room. Clots of people are in various states of semi-consciousness.

We're all the way in the opposite corner, near the door. Joe and Janice have already been asked to leave (no food or drink allowed). It seems like there is some high-tech electronic shield around this room that prevents any wifi or cell phone signal from penetrating. We wait.