Chapter 9 Obie/Maria where the lord closes a door, somewhere he opens a window…
Obie's point of view
2am I heard Maria get up to go to the restroom… I heard her scream and got out of bed… she wouldn't let me into the bathroom.
"Maria, what is it?" I asked
"Send for Dr Turner at once" she whispered, I could hear the tears and the pain in her voice.
"OK… Ria let me in… you sound like you need help"
She unlocked the door and, as I had suspected, her eyes were red and puffy from crying uncontrollably… I reeled her in.
"Ri, I can't help you unless you tell me what happened. I need to be able to tell Dr Turner about this."
"I was…" she said in a quivering whisper.
"You were?" I asked, feeling my heart swell with hope
"Yes, but I am not any more…" Maria said, "I've had another…"
I knew exactly what she meant. I felt my heart shatter… I knew this would be worse for her than for me, though.
"Oh… Ria, I'm so sorry…"
"We can try again? Right?" she asked
"Of course we can… in a couple of months once you've had a chance to heal" I replied.
This was the fifteenth time this had happened…
While Maria was sedated after her surgery, I asked Dr Turner some questions
"Doctor, why can't she carry to term?"
"I'm not certain… I am going to refer you to a specialist"
3 weeks before the date of the appointment with the specialist came through, Maria had loads of blood tests done. We would get the results of the tests on the second appointment day.
When the letter came, Maria pursed her lips, her face was pale, and she was a little clammy.
"Do you want me to go with you?"
"Yes"
We arrived at the clinic 20 minutes before the appointment. We completed a lot of paperwork and then the specialist came out. Maria had more tests done…
Two weeks later, we got the results of the tests…
"Dr and Mrs Stane… welcome… I have your tests results, Dr Stane. I am afraid that you have what is known as an incompetent cervix – that means you can conceive but cannot carry to term. As a result of this, you cannot bear children biologically. I'm sorry. In fact, since there is such a risk of tubal pregnancy – which could be potentially fatal – I'm going to have to recommend that you have an immediate hysterectomy."
The diagnosis was devastating, but Obie and I talked about it and we both realized that I should have a hysterectomy because it was safer than me accidentally conceiving again and then having a tubal pregnancy. I had the surgery and took 8 months to recover fully. Once I was fully recovered, Obie took me to Italy on vacation.
When we got back, I found out that my cousin's children had been orphaned, and they were about to be separated if someone didn't step in. There were 8 of them altogether.
We agreed to take the children – one boy and 7 girls… and then Howard brought us another… a baby girl – only a couple of hours old… her birth was the direct result of an attack on Peggy…
We raised our family baptist – the Tribbiani kids had been raised in the Catholic faith, but their education at catholic school was shocking. Joey, the second eldest and only boy, had been ridiculed for not being intelligent. We had him evaluated. He has Dyspraxia, ADD and ADHD… The specialist recommended sending him away to a facility 'which dealt with such children' but the idea of that terrified me, so we homeschooled. Joey became an actor and got the lead in the hit Broadway musical Jersey Boys.
