I opened my eyes, and there he was standing over me, just inches from my face. He was stroking my head, my hair; God, he was handsome. I wished he were someone who loved me instead of someone whose next words were, “You’re bleeding into your brain.”
It was late September 2001. I was in the ER at the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. I asked Dr Handsome, “Will I lose my ability to speak?” He said it’s possible. I needed to call my mom and my sister. They needed to hear this from me while I could still tell them myself.
I called my sister, Kelly. She was as she always is: the most magnificent person I know. Then I called my mom, a more difficult conversation for me, since I didn’t know if she liked me very much. Here I was, dying and insecure all at the same time. She was gardening outside in her yard on top of a mountain in Pennsylvania. She fell apart.
Despite the distance between us, she and my dad arrived in under 24 hours. She ran into the hospital still in her shorts, covered in gardening mud. Years of miscommunication between us fell away in a look. As I lay there knowing that I could die at any second, she stroked my face with her dusty hand and I suddenly felt that my mother loved me.
I called my best friend of more than 20 years, Mimi, and said, “I might die and you are the only one I can tell the truth to because somebody needs to take care of everyone and it’s not going to be me.”
I said, “There is a very good-looking doctor here, and sadly I might not be able to flirt with him.”
Bu hikaye The Australian Women's Weekly dergisinin May 2021 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye The Australian Women's Weekly dergisinin May 2021 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Hitting a nerve
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Take me to the river
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The last act
When family patriarch Tom Edwards passes away, his children must come together to build his coffin in four days, otherwise they will lose their inheritance. Can they put their sibling rivalry aside?
MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN
When Alexei Navalny died in a brutal Arctic prison, Vladimir Putin thought he had triumphed over his most formidable opponent. Until three courageous women - Alexei's mother, wife and daughter - took up his fight for freedom.
The wines and lines mums
Once only associated with glamorous A-listers, cocaine is now prevalent with the soccer-mum set - as likely to be imbibed at a school fundraiser as a nightclub. The Weekly looks inside this illegal, addictive, rising trend.
Jenny Liddle-Bob.Lucy McDonald.Sasha Green - Why don't you know their names?
Indigenous women are being murdered at frightening rates, their deaths often left uninvestigated and widely unreported. Here The Weekly meets families who are battling grief and desperate for solutions.
Growing happiness
Through drought flood and heartbreak, Jenny Jennr's sunflowers bloom with hope, sunshine and joy
"Thank God we make each other laugh"
A shared sense of humour has seen Aussie comedy couple Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall conquer the world. But what does life look like when the cameras go down:
Winter baking with apples and pears
Celebrate the season of Australian apples and pears with these sweet bakes that will keep the midwinter blues away.
Budget dinner winners
Looking for some thrifty inspiration for weeknight dinners? Try our tasty line-up of low-cost recipes that are bound to please everyone at the table.
