Disclaimer: This story is based on the BBC television series Keeping Up Appearances written by Roy Clarke, which as far as I know, is the property of the BBC. No infringement is intended.
Chapter 1: Our Sister
When Hyacinth Bucket and her husband and family all learned that the ambulance was finally on its way to her sister Violet's cottage to take Elizabeth and Baby Gloria to the nearest hospital at around nine o'clock that morning, they were all very relieved to say the least. And for a few minutes, it appeared as though they could all finally relax. But when Hyacinth came out of the master bedroom and into the kitchen at long last, where her husband Richard, her sister Daisy and brother-in-law Onslow, and Elizabeth's brother Emmet were all sitting around at the kitchen table, things took a very sudden and very worrisome turn once again.
"There she is. The heroine who saved the day," said Richard with obvious pride. And yes, normally, his wife Hyacinth was absolutely intolerable, but after delivering Elizabeth's baby girl and saving her life about three hours earlier, Hyacinth more than deserved every word of her husband's praise, and they all knew it.
Hyacinth reached up and opened a couple of Violet's kitchen cabinets then as Richard and Daisy rose from their seats and came over to her.
"What is it that you need, Hyacinth?" Daisy asked. "Whatever it is, I'll take care of it for you."
"Yes, after everything you've been through, you just sit down and relax and let us take care of you right now," said Richard.
"I know that now that the bridge is safe to use again, Mrs. Councillor Nugent went out to get a bottle and some formula and diapers for the baby, and I know that the ambulance is on the way to take the baby and Elizabeth to hospital, but I'm still worried about Elizabeth. She suffered terribly last night and this morning. And it's a very chilly morning. I don't want her getting too cold or dehydrated. I know Violet's got some hot chocolate around here somewhere. I want Elizabeth to have some before the ambulance arrives."
Emmet got up then and came over to where the three of them were standing, and he told Hyacinth, "I'll make the hot chocolate, Hyacinth. You just sit down and relax now. Believe me, you've more than earned a break."
"Amen to that," Onslow agreed.
"Yes, Hyacinth, you went through a lot last night and this morning, too," said Daisy. "Why don't you sit down and relax, and I'll make you some breakfast. I'll make you anything you want."
"Thanks, Daisy, but I really don't feel up to eating right now. I just want Gloria and Elizabeth to get to the hospital and for a doctor to confirm that they're both alright. Then and only then will I relax and take a break."
"I wouldn't put that break off if I were you, Hyacinth. You really look horrible right now," Onslow told her from the kitchen table.
"Always the voice of tact and sensitivity, aren't you, Onslow?" Hyacinth responded.
"I may not have tact or sensitivity, but I do have eyes, Hyacinth, and I can easily see it, even from all the way over here, that you're not feeling well. You really should start taking that break now. I think you need it a lot more than you realize."
"He's right, Hyacinth," Richard said in a very concerned tone. "Now listen, I know you're not a very big fan of public displays of affection, but I know a person who badly needs I hug when I see one. Come here."
"Oh, Richard," Hyacinth said while stifling a sob as Richard lovingly wrapped his arms around her.
Immediately after putting his arms around his wife, Richard said in an even more concerned voice, "Hyacinth, you're shaking. You're shaking so hard. All over."
"Hyacinth, I think you need to sit down," Emmet said in the same concerned tone.
In that moment, something told Richard to put his hand on Hyacinth's chest to check her heart, and when he did, it really frightened him how hard and fast her heart was pounding.
"Hyacinth, your heart has gone completely out of control. How long has your heart been racing like this?" asked Richard.
"A little while now."
"Define, 'a little while,' Hyacinth," Richard told her.
"If you must know, Richard, it first started the moment I realized the baby needed CPR."
"Hyacinth, you need to sit down, and you need to sit down right now. Come on. Over here," said Richard as he put his arm around her waist and began leading her over to the kitchen table, and Daisy and Emmet followed. Hyacinth and Richard sat down next to each other then, while Daisy and Emmet remained standing close by. "I'm going to check your pulse," Richard told her as he put his index and middle fingers on Hyacinth's wrist and began looking at his watch. Fifteen seconds later, after multiplying the number by four and doing the math in his head, Richard was terrified. "Hyacinth, your heart is beating at two hundred ten beats per minute."
"Oh God," Daisy gasped.
"That cannot be right," said Onslow. "There's no way. If her heart had really been beating that fast since she did CPR on the baby three hours ago, there's no way she'd still be conscious. Or even breathing. She would've gone into cardiac arrest a long time ago."
"Oh, what, Onslow? Do you think I'm lying? Do you think I'm just sitting here making stuff up?" Richard snapped. "If you don't believe me, check Hyacinth's pulse for yourself."
"Easy, Richard. Easy," said Onslow as he rose from his seat and stepped over closer to Hyacinth and Richard. "I know you're not lying or making anything up, mate. I just think that you're very worried about your wife, and I think you simply made a mistake when counting her pulse rate. That's all." Onslow then took Hyacinth's wrist between his thumb and first two fingers and said, "Here, let me see."
After looking down at his watch and counting Hyacinth's pulse for the next fifteen seconds and doing the math in his head, the expression on Onslow's face immediately changed from mere concern to borderline terror. "He didn't make a mistake. He's right," Onslow said in horror. Onslow had always disliked Hyacinth as much as anyone else, but he didn't want to see her go into cardiac arrest, and he certainly didn't want to see her die. None of them did. Now that they'd seen for themselves just how big her heart actually was underneath all her bluster, she had, over the past fourteen hours, become someone quite dear to them. "It's at two thirteen now," Onslow informed them.
"Dear Lord," Emmet gasped.
"We need to get Hyacinth into the guest bedroom so she can lie down," said Daisy.
"Daisy's right, Hyacinth. We need to get you lying down immediately," Emmet concurred.
Hyacinth firmly shook her head, and then she asked, "Do you all remember, when Elizabeth was having the contractions last night, how I kept telling her to listen to her instincts and do what her body was telling her to do?"
"Of course," Daisy replied.
"Right now, my body and my instincts are telling me that if I allow myself to lie down, I'll pass out. I don't know how I know that, but I just do."
"Alright, then. We'll just sit here with you until the ambulance finally gets here, and when the paramedics arrive, they'll know what to do," said Richard.
Again, Hyacinth shook her head, and she told them, "When the ambulance arrives, you will not say one word about this to the paramedics. I want that baby in there to have their complete and undivided attention. And Elizabeth. They both need the paramedics to give them one hundred percent of their focus and attention after the hell they've been through. As soon as they've left for the hospital, you can help me out to the car, Richard, and then we'll go to the hospital and I'll get checked out."
"I don't think there's time for that, Hyacinth," Daisy said worriedly.
"Neither do I," said Richard.
"Listen to me. All of you. Facing the situation that I did, helping Elizabeth bring that baby into the world, was the toughest battle I ever fought in all my life, and for quite a while, I wasn't sure if I could fight it, but I did. And I know that if I could get through that battle, I can get through this battle, too. I can get through it and I will get through it. I know it won't be easy, but I can hold on until the paramedics leave with Elizabeth and the baby, and I will hold on. I will not allow anything to stop them from giving Gloria and Elizabeth their completely undivided attention. And that's final. Do you all understand me?"
Onslow then moved the chair he'd been previously sitting in a lot closer to Hyacinth, sat down next to her, looked right into her eyes, and said, "Hyacinth, with all due respect, it's not us who aren't understanding things; it's you. You do not understand the situation, so I'm going to spell it out for you. Your heart has been beating at over two hundred beats per minute for more than three hours, and the human heart simply cannot sustain that for very long. Every second that goes by with you at this heart rate, you are in danger, grave danger, of going into cardiac arrest. Yes, Elizabeth and her baby are in serious need of medical attention, but your need for it is absolutely critical. If you try to wait before going to hospital, it could kill you, Hyacinth. It could literally kill you. Hyacinth, this is your life."
"I already know that, you overbearing, obnoxious fool! Do you really think I'm that stupid?! I had to become a registered nurse while I was studying to become a midwife, you idiot! I assure you, I am very well aware of what this is doing to me. I am very well aware that my life is in danger. What you are not taking into consideration, Mr. Know-It-All, is that above all things, above being a hostess or a homemaker or a sister or a midwife, I am a mother first and forever, and nothing, absolutely nothing, matters more to me than the life and the wellbeing of that priceless little baby in there. I'd rather go into cardiac arrest, I'd rather die a million deaths than do anything that might hinder that precious baby from getting all the care she needs right now."
As they all knew, Hyacinth could often be very melodramatic, but now, they knew that Hyacinth was not just being melodramatic or silly. They all knew that she absolutely meant business. She meant every single word that had just come out of her mouth with all her heart, and everyone there knew that beyond a shadow of a doubt. In those moments, it was obvious that she truly did care far more about Baby Gloria than she did about her own life.
Richard put his arm around Hyacinth's shoulders then and said in the most loving, gentle voice, "Listen to me, Hyacinth. Listen to me now. Please, please try and calm down and just listen to me for a moment, alright? Can you do that for me, love?" Hyacinth quietly nodded, and then Richard said in the most loving voice, "Nobody is going to go into cardiac arrest today, Hyacinth, and nobody is going to die today. Nobody. We are not about to let that happen. Now we're all just going to sit quietly in here and relax and take a few deep breaths and try to calm down."
"I've been taking deep breaths, and I've been trying to calm down and relax for three hours. But nothing works."
Oh Lord, please help us, Daisy silently prayed inside. What are we going to do?
And in that very instant, a memory that Daisy hadn't thought of in many years suddenly came to the surface. A very unpleasant and painful memory, but a very helpful memory, nonetheless.
"I think I know what's going on," said Daisy as the light bulb really came on in her eyes. "Onslow, get up and get out of the way. I need to sit in your chair. I need to speak to my sister." Knowing now that Daisy also meant business, Onslow quickly obeyed his wife and got out of the way so that she could sit down in front of Hyacinth.
After taking her seat, she put her hand on top of Hyacinth's and gently told her, "Hyacinth, I know that you remember what it was like when Mum died. You had just turned thirteen, and I was ten, and Violet was nine, and Rose was seven. And even though you were so very young, you knew that you had to step into our mother's shoes. You knew that you were the only mother Violet, Rose, and I would ever know from that point forward. And all through the day of her funeral, and the entire month afterwards, you stayed so strong. You got through the funeral and every single day after that for the next month without shedding one single tear. You were the perfect pillar of strength for us to lean on. You were always there to hold us and rock us and cuddle us whenever we got to missing Mum and we needed to have a good cry, but you never let yourself cry for even one second. And I remember; it was precisely one month after Mum's funeral, one month to the day, that you started becoming ill. You started vomiting and having terrible stomach pain. You couldn't hold anything down for two weeks straight. Daddy took you to the doctor and he ran tests, but he couldn't find anything wrong. And then finally, one Friday afternoon when Violet and Rose and I got home from school and came into our room to check on you, we found you lying in bed, sobbing your heart out. The minute we walked in, I saw it in your eyes how much you wanted to hide it, how much you wanted to stop yourself from crying, but you just couldn't. You'd lost control of yourself completely, and your body was basically forcing you to cry because it desperately needed you to cry. And I believe that's what's happening now."
"What on earth does all of this have to do with Mummy's death?" asked Hyacinth.
"Losing our mother and having to become a mother at age thirteen was a very frightening and painful experience for you, Hyacinth, but even that was a walk in the park compared to everything you've just been through last night and this morning with Elizabeth and her baby. Nothing hurt you more than losing your first baby all those years ago, and this morning, you had to deliver another baby into the world who wasn't breathing, who could have very easily died, just like your baby did. I think having to do CPR on Baby Gloria was far more traumatizing for you than you realize, and even though you're being all tough and strong on the outside, on the inside, your heart is pounding away inside of you right now because it's trying to tell you that your body needs you to cry again. I think it desperately needs you to cry right now. Just like it needed you to cry when Mummy died."
"I think she's right, Hyacinth," Richard said softly.
"Well right now, I'm willing to try just about anything to make my heart slow down, but if I have to do this, can I please have some privacy with my husband?"
"Absolutely, love," Daisy assured her, and then after getting up and kissing Hyacinth on the cheek, she, Onslow, and Emmet began to walk out of the kitchen.
"Emmet?" Hyacinth called, and Emmet turned around and faced her. "Elizabeth has been all alone with the baby for quite a while now unattended. I'd feel much better if you'd stay with your sister until the ambulance arrives."
"With our sister," Emmet lovingly corrected her, and Hyacinth gave him a very choked-up smile and nod, and then Emmet nodded and left.
And he really did mean it. Just twenty-four hours earlier, he despised Hyacinth. But after everything she'd done for Elizabeth and Baby Gloria, she had officially become a member of the family in both his and Elizabeth's hearts. And he knew that if anything did happen to Hyacinth now, it would break their hearts into a million pieces, and he fervently prayed in those moments that Richard would be able to help Hyacinth.