Just borrowing from Janet.
Eyes to Remember
Chapter 1
Almost four years ago
The telephone rang at a Trenton residence. Ellen Plum, a middle aged housewife with short salt and peppered grey hair answered, "Hello, Plums. Yes, she is?"
"Mother, telephone for you."
A small elderly woman about seventy came in with a hot pink sweat suit, "Edna Mazur," picking up the cordless phone. "Yes, Tracy. I see." She sank down into a dining room chair, physically upset. "How bad is it? Tell her," choking on her tears, "I'll be there. I'm leaving now. I'll take a cab from the airport. Where's Katie? OK."
"Mother, what's wrong?"
She ignored her only daughter and went up the steps, only coming back down immediately with her coat, purse, and an overnight bag.
"What's going on?" a large husky middle aged man asked.
"I need to get to the airport. Will you take me or should I call a cab?" the elderly woman said with determination but fear showed on her now pale face.
"Why? Where are you going, Mother?"
"It doesn't concern you, Ellen. Frank, are you taking me or not?"
"Does this have something to do with Stephanie?" her son-in-law questioned. His mother-in-law wouldn't just pick-up and leave like this for just anyone. His younger daughter lived in Denver. They talked frequently knowing Stephanie was dealing with the death of her fiancee about 5 months ago. Every time her parents wanted to visit lately, she put them off. "Tell us, is Stephanie sick?"
The area of Trenton where they lived was called Chambersburg. People mostly of Hungarian or Italian descent with very old fashioned ideas, ones Ellen Plum believed. A woman should get married, keep an immaculate house, and pop out babies with your husband. That was their older daughter, but not Stephanie. She had a career as a creative editor for a magazine. Ellen had tried to push her into a marriage to an up-and-coming attorney right out of college, but two weeks before the big day Stephanie found him cheating with another woman. She landed a position with her business and merchandising degree as a lingerie buyer for a department store. A lingerie designer took a liking to Stephanie and her creative mind. She modeled sleepwear and undergarments occasionally, but her talent was designing the fashion shows. The lingerie shows for "'Whisper Lingerie' became so popular, the line was in extreme demand all over the world, and the designer kept asking more of her until she burned out. Stephanie accepted a position with a magazine being a fashion editor at first, then named as the creative editor for the last two years.
Robert, her fiancée, was an archeologist. He was killed along with a guide in a mountain climbing accident in Peru , approximately three months before their wedding. Before he left on the archeological dig, they had discovered Stephanie was pregnant. Now, Edna found out her baby granddaughter was rushed into an emergency c-section due to the placenta abruption. The baby girl would be born more than a month early, and hopefully, survive.
Stephanie never told her parents she was pregnant after the funeral. Ellen would have thought that was the end of the world, an unmarried pregnant daughter. That was more than she could deal with. Robert's parents were killed after he graduated from college in a car accident, so he was raising his younger sister. And, now, Stephanie would be raising her and their baby alone.
The man bellowed at her grabbing her bony elbow, "What is wrong with Stephanie I'm asking you?"
Looking at the man, then staring into her rigid daughter's face, saying matter-of-factly, "She was pregnant when Robert died. They are doing an emergency c-section as we speak to try and save the baby. Stephanie never told you because she couldn't handle Ellen's harping her daughter was an unwed mother after everything else and the shame she would have caused," shifting her attention between her son-in-law and dughter. "Or, maybe Ellen just down right rejecting her. You have caused her to stay away, Ellen! Trying to make her into something she is not. I have a plane to catch."
"This is my daughter. I am extremely proud of her and she needs her father to lean on. I coming with you. Stay here, Ellen."
"Stephanie is pregnant?" Ellen Plum said to them, stunned by what she had just learned.
"Yes. If the baby survives her name will be Aliyah Rae after Robert's grandmother. And poor Katie is terrified. She's alone and afraid she could lose Stephanie. I need to go as a flight will be leaving for Denver soon."
"We'll all go," sobbing, Ellen grabbed her coat and her purse as her husband locked the door. "I have to make this right. She can't be alone anymore."
After the longest flight from Trenton, Frank and Ellen Plum with Grandma Mazur were walking very hurriedly through Denver Memorial Hospital. The registrar told them Stephanie's room was 417 in the maternity ward. Her room was empty when they walked in.
A nurse came over to them.
"I'm Stephanie's grandmother. These are her parents. Where is she?"
"Down at the nursery?"
Ellen was trying to hold back her more tears, hoping they weren't too late, "The baby. How is our granddaughter?"
"She's on a ventilator. The doctor is hopeful. Her lungs need time to fully develop. The nursery is through those double doors."
They stood in front of the large plate glass window, watching Stephanie dressed in a surgical gown sitting beside an incubator soothing a small baby. A young girl with long straight blond hair was standing beside her.
"I don't know if you remember me, I'm Tracy, Stephanie's assistant. Hi, Grandma. Mr. and Mrs. Plum," a young woman with short black hair came over to them,
"How is the baby and Stephanie?" her father asked looking through the glass, tears in his eyes.
"She's trying to hold everything together. It's an emotional time just having a baby, but knowing Aliyah is early, and she's still dealing with her grief. I'm afraid she may crack. It may be too much for her"
A neo-natal nurse came out, "Are you Stephanie's family?"
They all nodded. "Yes," Ellen confirmed.
Grandma questioned, "Aliyah. How is she?"
"She weighs 4 pounds 3 ounces. Her lungs are under developed, that's why she's on the ventilator. She's a fighter and a squirmer moving her arms and legs. The nursery is pretty empty right now. Would you like to come in? You'll need to put on the sterile gowns in changing area."
"Yes. I would like to see my new granddaughter," Frank was striding to the door the nurse indicated.
Not waiting for his wife or mother-in-law, he quietly walked over to the incubator seeing a small baby with a ventilator and wires connected to monitors. One registering Aliyah's heartbeat. He could see some brown fuzz to match her mother's curly hair.
Stephanie looked up with red, tense eyes from crying.
"It will be Ok, Pumpkin. Daddy's here," clutching her to his chest as her tears started to fall and holding out his other arm to the scared young girl beside her.
"She is so beautiful, Stephanie," her mother said looking down at the tiny baby.
" Mom, what are you doing here? Hi, Grandma."
"You did good, Baby Granddaughter. She has your spirit. Aliyah will be fine. She has to be."
The neo-natal doctor came in, checked the print-out from the monitors and Aliyah's heart rate. Then, checking the circulation in her hands and feet.
"Stephanie, would you like to hold her before you go back to your room?"
Shaking fingers reached to gingerly touch her forehead, "Mommy's here Aliyah. Mommy's here."
Tiny eyes opened revealing blue eyes. Little fingers wrapped around the pinkie finger her grandfather gave his granddaughter.
The neo-natal nurse gently laid the small infant in her mother's arms making sure the ventilator tube was free, not hung up on any equipment.
"Hi there, sweetheart. This is your Aunt Katie. Grandma and Grandpa Plum are here. There is Grandma Mazur. You're daddy would think you are so precious."
About a half hour later, the nurse put the tiny baby back in the incubator.
"I can't leave her."
Putting a hand on her shoulder, her father gently said, " Stephanie, you need to rest. Aliyah needs you. You can't take care of her if you get sick. Let's go get some rest. I'll be here"
"If anything would change, a nurse will get you immediately. Please, rest. You had a c-section so it's going to take you longer to recover."
"Ok. Can I kiss her before I leave?"
With tender lips, Stephanie placed a soft kiss on her baby's forehead, "Mommy's not far away, Aliyah."