"He has pneumonia," said Dr. Barlow. "His war injury compromised his immune system, and getting out in the rain to change that tire didn't help. His pulse and respiratory rates have both increased dramatically, and he's burning up with fever. It's hard to say right now which way this will go. We'll know more in three days. I'm so sorry."
Martha buried her face in her hands and began to cry.
"He's my baby!" she sobbed. "I can't lose him!"
Reuben patted her arm. "He's in good hands, dear. I'm sure he'll be all right."
Laura's insides churned.
"He has to make it!" she cried. "He just has to!"
"Everything's going to be fine," Elizabeth soothed as she held her daughter. "Before your father and I were married, he had a terrible accident in which the slicer went right into his belly. He got an infection and almost died, but the doctor gave him an antibiotic, and he pulled through."
"Can't you give Stephen the same thing?" Laura asked Dr. Barlow.
"Believe me, we're doing everything we can for him," the doctor replied. "Modern medicine can work wonders, but it can't perform miracles. We'll just have to wait and see and hope for the best."
The next several days passed like a blur for Laura. Stephen's sister Sarah cared for the twins while she spent most of her time by her husband's side, taking time out only to eat and sleep. Stephen slept most of the time, awakening several times a day for a meal of broth, ginger ale, and Jello. Laura did her best to cheer him up by regaling him with stories of the twins.
"They're so cute when they sleep together," she told him. "Jeremy wraps his little arm around his sister, like he's protecting her!"
Stephen managed a weak smile.
Several days later, Dr. Barlow told Laura Stephen would need an operation.
"He has fluid in the space around his lungs," he said. "As a result, respiration has become very difficult for him."
"But is he strong enough to survive surgery?" asked Laura.
"I don't know, but if we don't drain the fluid right away, it will make him suffocate," the doctor replied.
The operation only took a few minutes, but to Laura, it seemed to take forever. At last Dr. Barlow arrived with news.
"He survived the surgery, but he's very weak," he said. "You can go back and see him as soon as he's back in his room."
The next time Laura saw her husband, he was lying in bed with tubes running out of him. She thought she'd never seen him looking so weak and helpless. Her heart was breaking as she walked to him and took his hand into her own.
"Please get well, Stephen!" she begged.
The surgery provided temporary respite, but Stephen's lungs were soon filled with fluid and became stiff. He struggled to breathe, taking short, quick gasps, until finally it was impossible to inhale. Starved for oxygen, his brain cells began to die, one by one. With no oxygen reaching his heart, it began to beat irregularly, finally coming to a stop.
The physician checked him and found his pupils unresponsive. With a heavy heart, he went to the waiting room to talk to Stephen's family.
"I'm very sorry to have to tell you this, but Stephen has passed," he said. "It was very peaceful, and he didn't suffer at all. He just went to sleep and never woke up. You can go back and see him, if you want."
"But what about that operation he had?" Laura didn't even realize she was screaming.
"The operation helped for a little while, but in the end, it couldn't save him," the doctor replied. "He was simply too weak, and the infection was too strong."
Martha sobbed inconsolably, while Reuben just sat there like a rock, staring into space. Overwhelmed, Laura didn't know what to do.
The three of them entered the room in which Stephen lay pale and ever so still. Martha brushed the hair back from his forehead and then kissed it. "Bye bye, baby," she whispered.
Laura kissed the cold cheek. "I'll make sure Jeremy and Jennifer never, ever forget you," she promised.
A sense of numbness mixed with stomach-churning dread filled Laura as she walked out of the hospital with her in-laws. It boggled her mind to realize that, at nineteen, she was a widow and the sole support of two infants. How would she ever manage?
Feeling as if she were playing a role in a movie, she entered the room in which the twins slept peacefully. She stood beside Jeremy's crib, watching his lips quiver, searching his face for any fleeting resemblance to Stephen.
You're the man of the house now, little one, she thought to herself.
As is he knew his mother was watching him, Jeremy squirmed, then settled back down. Laura looked over at his sister and felt an overwhelming sorrow.
She couldn't even imagine what it would have been like to grow up without a father.
Tears filled her eyes, blurring her vision.
