Title
Document Type
Narrative Essay
Publication Date
1995
Excerpt
One cold day in January of 1990 I was at my sister's townhouse when the phone rang, quickly figured out from the one-sided conversation that it was my mother on the other end of the phone line. She was at the hospital with my father. He had been sick for a couple months with pain in his side. He had had an ulcer for quite a long time, but this was something more. His stomach swelled up almost as if he were pregnant. He went to the hospital the day after Christmas. They ran so many tests and the doctors still did not know what was wrong with him. They drained a considerable amount of fluid from his stomach. I had not been to the hospital because I could not bear to see him that way. Now my mother was calling with more test results. I was trying to imagine what my mother might be saying from my sister's words. Unexpectedly, she raised her tone of voice in protest saying "No!" Her husband Joe tried to shush her, I think for my sake. She hung up the phone and ran upstairs; I could hear her bawling. I knew then what my father's fate was to be.
Recommended Citation
Sullivan, Leslie, "Precious Time (1995)" (1995). The Valpo Core Reader. 225.
http://scholar.valpo.edu/core_reader/225