A Mother's Sacrifice
Chapter 1
Mary and John Alexander lived in the quiet town of Galilee with their two young children Oliver and Lily, they were god fearing folk and were always front and centre on a Sunday morning at Church, they never missed a minute of a sermon and were very much big believers and followers of their faith. The Alexander Family had many friends and they were all of a similar upbringing being Christian and believing Jesus was to be cherished and revered for what he did by way of his crucifixion and all of his other acts that still live on today by way of the holy bible.
Mary was 33 years old and it was fair to say life had been good to her, she had two healthy kids with Oliver aged 8 and Lily 5 and with a husband who was the envy of many with his complete devotion to his wife clear for anyone to see. Sceptics would have said it wasn't hard to be in love with Mary because she was the kind of girl any guy wants to bring home to Mum, she had the voice of an angel and definitely looked like one, her long blonde hair always impeccably maintained while her eyes were as blue as the sea and she had the most perfectly formed body any man could ask for, her legs were always striking when exposed in a knee length pencil skirt while she always knew just the right amount of cleavage to show to still look classy. While she may have been a devout follower of god you wouldn't have said she was overbearing in her beliefs, she still found time for anyone who wasn't a churchgoer and was as kind to the people in her inner circle as she was to a homeless man on the street. In fact, she often volunteered at the homeless shelter for the needy, she spent many winter nights there handing out steaming hot bowls of soup and offering a listening ear to anyone who needed it. Mary was just an all round good person.
After a hard day of work one day John came in to see his wife looking very concerned about something. Little did he know she'd had a visit from someone that would change her life.
"Is something wrong my love?" asked John.
"No I'm ok." she replied very unconvincingly. John looked down and noticed his wife seemed to be carrying a bamboo coloured wooden box, it appeared to have a lock on it and was probably about 30 centimetres long and 20 centimetres wide. "What's in the box?" he asked.
"Well I need to talk to you about this actually. I just don't know where to start" worried Mary.
"Just start at the beginning and work your way through" replied John trying to stay calm and find out what his wife wanted to say.
Mary paused briefly before starting. "Well this box contains some very important information. The catch is that you are only allowed to open it after my death"
"Oh my love please tell me you are not dying. I can't lose you I just can't" said a frightened John immediately fearing the worst.
"I'm not dying. I will still be around for a long time yet I hope, I just need to tell you this while I still can" Mary said as calmly as possible before taking John's hand in a move to reassure him.
"Your really scaring me with this talk" he fretted.
"I'm not trying to I promise. It just needs to be said as when I die this box will explain everything. I'm sorry but I just can't say anymore at this point. This has to remain a secret that only I know for now"
"A secret? You know we don't have secrets in this relationship Mary" cautioned John.
"Yes I'm fully aware of that John but you just have to trust me on this" implored Mary.
"I'm not happy about this. You just sit there all ashen faced and expect me to just follow some order to not open up a box as it apparently only has relevance once your dead? That's a pretty big thing to just drop on someone"
"Yes I know sweetheart but this box is bigger than you, it's bigger than us"
"I can't believe this. 10 years of marriage and you can't tell me anymore??"
"I wish I could but I can't. Please,PLEASE just trust me on this and tell me you won't open the box or tell anyone about it until the necessary time" pleaded Mary.
"I don't know what's happened in the past few hours while you have been at home but I'll do it. I love you and I'll respect your wishes" agreed John reluctantly. While he knew his wife would always do the best thing by him and their family the box and it's contents made him feel very uneasy.
2 weeks went by and after things were a little icy for a day or two the box and it's possible contents had now been pretty much forgotten about. It was March the 3rd 2003 and business as usual around the Alexander household as Oliver and Lily prepared for school while John got ready for work. This morning though Mary felt quite ill and was still in her pyjamas looking a bit pale. "You ok babe?" asked John. "Yeah just a little rundown I think" replied Mary. After breakfast they all took off in the family car with John dropping the kids off at school before heading to work while Mary decided to return to bed. She slept for what seemed a few hours then made her way out of bed, as she hopped out she thought something felt weird though, normally the rustle of the sheets would make a bit of a sound but there was none. She walked out into the lounge room and decided a bit of tv was in order so clicked it on... but no sound came out. Straight away she mumbled to herself "It's started to happen". She couldn't hear herself say this though and knew that she was now deaf....
As Mary tried to come to terms with her new condition she wondered how she was going to break it to her family, while many would have thought this was a temporary thing she knew it wasn't, she would never hear anything ever again and this was the start of what would be a very tough road. A road with no hearing. Hours passed and Mary knew she wouldn't be able to hear the rumble of John's car pull up or her boisterous young son Oliver charging in making a racket as he entered, Nor would she hear the sweet sound of her daughter Lily calling out the name "Mum" anymore. It was at this point she had a bit of a sob to herself, it hadn't been long but she was already mourning the lost of her hearing and everything it meant, she knew it would happen but she hoped she would get a bit more time.... Clearly not.
Soon enough the family car pulled up in the driveway, Mary not hearing it but seeing it pull up out the lounge room window which looks out into the driveway. The door turned and Mary saw it was her young son Oliver who came in first, once he saw his mother he greeted her with a hello and asking what's for dinner, something Mary didn't hear. "Mum I asked what's for dinner?" asked a famished Oliver again. "I'm sorry Oliver but I seem to have lost my hearing, I have no idea what you are saying" replied Mary sadly. Oliver looked at his mother strangely, she normally wasn't one for jokes but he naturally thought this was one. "Good one Mum, you nearly got me for a second. So??? What's for dinner??" he asked for a third time. Mary could see her son's lips moving but no sound came out for her, not even the hint of a sound now came into her eardrums. While this was happening Mary's husband John walked in. "Mum is being silly dad, she is saying she can't hear" Oliver told his dad. John naturally had a similar response and thought Mary must be putting this on for some reason. As he went to go up and sort it out though he realised the distress in his wife's face. "What's happened?" he asked. Mary guessed this time what he said and told him she had lost her hearing, she doesn't know how it's just gone. John stood in shock knowing his wife was being serious, she didn't joke around about these sorts of things and if she was then she would have owned up by now. Something was terribly wrong. As they tried to find out more about Mary's sudden deafness the last remaining member of the Alexander family, Lily, came in from the car they had all just been in. She was just as shocked as the others and they immediately took their mother to see a doctor. While they waited they all tried to make their mother feel comfortable by offering her a drink of water and holding her hand for support, they all felt like this would probably be one of those things that would last briefly before being all sorted out. As Mary sat there though she knew this wasn't just a 48 hour thing, she would be deaf for the rest of the life.
After a wait of 45 minutes Mary was called into the doctor's office, Mary couldn't believe how quiet the world now was with no sense of hearing, there was no sound of voices or the phone ringing, even just the clip clop of a person's shoes couldn't be heard. Nothing. As soon as she walked in the doctor went to talk to her but she had no idea what he was saying, she had heard her last words that morning when everyone went to work or school. The doctor inspected her ears then did some tests, all of these proved she had no hearing which baffled him and Mary's family alike. As the consultation finished he came to give the diagnosis to John. "Mr Alexander your wife appears to be fine and in perfect health, I can find no reason as to why she has no hearing, I can only assume it's all in her mind and is psychosomatic as nothing else makes sense" he explained. John stood worried that his wife may have developed some sort of mental illness but knew that whatever the outcome he would stand by her, Mary didn't want to alarm any of her family so she just went along with what they all hoped, all the while knowing the real truth...
Chapter 2
The mood in the Alexander household was a very sombre one for the next week as Mary's loss of hearing took it's toll, she was in tears everyday over it all while her husband and kids struggled to deal with a deaf wife and mother respectively. While obviously upset over it all John started to notice that over the week Mary seemed to be carrying around an air of inevitability over all of this, every time it seemed to be brought up she spoke as if there was no hope and that she knew her hearing wasn't coming back. They had started communicating by writing messages on boards so John wrote to his wife. "Did you know this was going to happen?"
Mary looked at him and knew she had to be at least as honest as she could. "Yes I knew" she replied.
"Why didn't you tell me??"
"I couldn't"
"Why not?"
"I just can't. This is something I have to endure and I can't explain" Mary wrote back. John could see the pain in her eyes but he had to press, he had to know why.
"Even if you knew then how can you go completely deaf in a matter of hours? With no known condition or symptom, it doesn't make sense!"
"It will at some point my love, I promise" replied Mary.
"When??"
"After I pass it will all make perfect sense my dear"
"After you pass? Why are you talking about death again? Has this got something to do with that infernal box?"
"It has nothing to do with the box. That will just give you the answers to questions which will be asked. I can't say anymore so can we please just drop it John, I'm tired and need my rest" pleaded Mary.
Once more John had no idea what on earth was going on but whatever it was he didn't like it, not one bit. After Mary went to bed he ducked over and took out the box from safekeeping, he so desperately wanted to open it but he promised he wouldn't. "This is doing my head in" he said to himself as he put the box back to where it was hidden. He walked into the bedroom he shared with his wife and curled up next to her. "Please tell me this is all worth it, whatever it is" he told his wife. "It is. I'd never put any of you in danger" assured Mary before falling asleep. Little did John know more was to come..
3 years passed and Mary continued her work back at the homeless shelter while the family had now become more than used to Mary's deafness, like any good family they had rallied around her and had all partaken in sign language classes, they could now almost communicate as well as they used to and if anything Mary's deafness had brought them even closer as a family. Sunday night rolled around and this was always a time where they would all sit down to watch a movie, it was a time they all looked forward to and was a time where they would all eat popcorn and just simply enjoy each other's company, the dvd on tonight was Toy story 3 and they all enjoyed it immensely, even Mary who had the benefit of subtitles on the bottom of the screen so she could keep up with what was happening with buzz, woody and the gang. After it finished the kids were sleepy so they wished their mother a good night and headed to bed, Mary and John stayed up a little longer before hitting the hay themselves. When they woke up something would change again though, testing the family and Mary's will even further..
The sun rose and shone brightly through John and Mary's bedroom on the day that was March 3 2006, John was first to wake and after collecting his thoughts sat up in bed and stretched his arms, he looked over and could see his beautiful wife was still lying on her back asleep, he didn't want to wake her so he quietly slid out of bed thinking that he might head to the kitchen and make his wife breakfast in bed before he headed off to work. He cut up some fresh strawberries and located some honey before scouring the cupboards for some pancake mix, he then fired up the pan and made enough for the whole family leaving half for his kids and taking the other half into his bedroom with his wife, he sat there waiting for her to wake up when she finally did. Mary saw her husband, smile beaming carrying a tray of delicious food and thought how wonderful, as she went to rise though and give him a kiss she realised she couldn't, what was going on? Once again she tried to move and couldn't, she then knew this was it, the second phase of what was meant to happen, just like when she lost her hearing she hoped this day wouldn't come for a while but that wasn't to be the case. As she lay there immobile her facial expression changed to worry and looking at her John sensed something was up. "Oh goodness has something happened? John fretted.
"Try not to worry too much but i don't seem to be able to move. Or for that matter feel anything below my chin. I think I'm paralyzed" informed Mary.
"No not again love. Surely not" replied a terrified John. "Can you feel this?" he asked squeezing his wife's foot.
"No I'm sorry. I can't"
"This can't be happening. First your hearing now this? How can it be?" moaned John. "I'm going to have to call an ambulance"
"Won't do much good" quipped Mary.
"Why not????"
"Because this is the way it's meant to be" replied Mary. As she said that she then started having trouble breathing. "Might have to call them actually. Can't breath" whispered Mary as her condition now worsened.
The paramedics arrived and put her on a ventilator to help with her breathing before taking her into hospital. "What was the nature of her accident?" they asked.
"Accident? There was no acccident! She just woke up and she was paralyzed" said an astounded John starting to really freak out.
Once Mary was stabilised and settled the doctor ran a battery of tests before once again concluding there was nothing wrong with her, there was no damage to her spine or any trauma of any kind, once again the only thing that made sense was that this was psychosomatic and her deafness and paralysis were all a figment of her imagination. While John was quite concerned by this diagnosis he couldn't help but think there was something more to this, particularly considering his wife's stance of all of it being inevitable.
After she was settled Mary's family came in, the sight of their mother deaf and completely paralyzed tethered to a respirator was almost too much to bare for Oliver and Lily, they couldn't believe that their mum was now the way she was, why her? Why their mum? While most lines of communication had been cut now with Mary losing her voice due to the introduction of the vent she could still understand what her kids were trying to tell her by way of sign language. As Mary looked on she felt so annoyed at having the kids see her this way, but it was just the way it had to be.
Due to not having any actual spinal injury or trauma Mary was now being considered as mentally ill, normally a person paralyzed from the neck down would go into therapy at this point but with her unique condition the hospital wasn't sure what to do with her. They decided for the next fortnight Mary would be visited by psychologists, psychiatrists and every other mental health expert known to man hoping to unlock the secret, but none of them would be able to get Mary out of her bed and moving. Constantly the experts would ask "Why are you doing this? What has happened?". These questions always got the same answer though "This is just the way it's meant to be" Mary would mouth to them, her voice still absent. They would ask her to elaborate but she couldn't, all she said was that while not happy about her present condition it had to be this way and that was that.
Weeks passed and nothing changed, Mary was still in the same situation and it was decided that they now just had to treat her like any other quadriplegic and they started with speech therapy and range of movement exercises, soon enough Mary got her voice back which was of great relief, she could now communicate a lot more clearer with people doing sign language while she would use her voice to respond and converse, this made her kids happiest of all and they now felt like once again they were connected to their mother, no matter her limitations now..
5 months went by and it was time for Mary to come home, she had baffled all and sundry at the hospital and none of them could work out how this was all happening, she had a new wheelchair that she operated by her mouth, it was quite a swish looking chair and it fitted her terrific physique very stylishly, pads kept her head in place while her long blonde hair was pulled back in a lovely ponytail, her eyes were still as blue as the sky on a good day and she had on a cute white dress with a print of red roses scattered over it, like any other quadriplegic she still needed a collection bag and catheter which was obvious and attached firmly to her shapely right leg, she was as paralyzed as you could get but Mary had now become used to this condition and just wanted to spend as much time with her family as possible. After all, who knew how much time she had left..
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