Nonie's Star (eBook)

D Johnson (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2019 | 1. Auflage
196 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-5439-8725-6 (ISBN)

Infos

Have you or a loved one ever received a medical diagnosis that shook you with fear, to the very core of your soul? 'Nonie's Star', is a non-fiction story of such a diagnosis which encompasses family, love and the short comings of our Western medical system.

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Nonie's Star, is the real life story of the fictional Sanders family and their youngest son, Mateo's, sudden diagnosis of inoperable brain cancer. D. Johnson brings you a story of love, devotion, pain and agony as you are brought on a mother's journey to save the life of her son while struggling against a severely broken medical system. Although the family name and those contained in the book are fictional, the story and unbelievable events that are written within these pages, are not.

Textauszug

CHAPTER 3

THE AFTERMATH

The following day was Monday, August 21—the day the insurance adjuster came to the house to inspect the damage. He explained to us that it would take a contractor to estimate the cost. He said he knew of one he could call who might come by if he was available. With that, he picked up his cell phone and began speaking to a man on the other end. The man said he was in the neighborhood and would be over in about fifteen minutes to give us an estimate.

Just as he’d promised, a knock sounded at the door approximately fifteen minutes later. I opened the door to find a middle-age gentleman standing there—perhaps in his late fifties—fully clad in work clothes and tool belt, holding a clipboard in his hands.

“Hello,” I greeted him as I motioned for him to enter the house.

“Hello, I’m Mr. Wymore. How can I help you?” he asked, stepping through the door.

“Oh, Mr. Begle,” he said, extending his hand to the insurance adjuster standing there. “How are you doing?”

“Just fine, Mr. Wymore, and you?”

“Been busy lately, but I’m not complaining. So, how can I help you?” Mr. Wymore asked again, as his eyes began scanning the fire damage in the kitchen.

“We were hoping you could help us with a possible estimate on the repair of this kitchen,” Mr. Begle spoke up. “I would like to speed up the process for these people if I could.”

“Sure,” Mr. Wymore said agreeably, pulling out his tape measure.

After some measuring of cabinets and making notes on his clipboard, Mr. Wymore came up with figures for the insurance adjuster. Mr. Begle promised to take those figures back to his office and submit them for final approval. He then explained that we would receive a check from the insurance company for the repair of our kitchen. We would have to find our own contractor, he noted.

Thinking back to the first fire, I realized I hadn’t had to do any of this before. The insurance company had taken care of all the details. I mentioned this to Mr. Begle who seemed to think Mr. Wymore was definitely a good choice if we wanted to hire him. So we did.

All agreed that Mr. Wymore would return on Friday with a contract for us to sign. In the meantime, the insurance company would be sending us paperwork to inventory our loss.

Within the next couple of days, we received the paperwork to inventory all that we’d lost in the kitchen. The pots, pans, utensils, and food, that I was unable to remove were either totally burned or damaged so badly from the smoke that they were unsanitary. We spent hours trying to remember all that had been there and all that had already been thrown out. Finally, the pages were complete, and we sent them back to the insurance company. Within those couple of days, Service Master was called to clean up the damaged clothes, bedding, and whatever else was in their purview to address.

Friday came and went with no word from the contractor.

On Wednesday, August 30, I made a call to the contractor’s office to ask why he hadn’t shown up the previous Friday. He had said he was terribly sorry for not meeting us and would be available to meet the next Friday, September 8.

As promised, Mr. Wymore met with us on Friday, and we discussed what would be done to my kitchen. The removal of a butcher-block counter and the making of a pantry and a cutting board seemed to be the most important changes agreed upon. I named what I would like, and Mr. Wymore made wonderful suggestions while jotting notes on a small pad of paper. After roughly thirty minutes, he left with the promise of returning on Monday with a contract and examples of cabinet fronts.

Monday came and went with no word from the contractor.

Todd had been keeping up with the insurance company’s paperwork and receipts for our food. We had forgotten about a knife set and a couple of other items on the original inventory papers, so Todd called the claims adjuster to add them. At that point, the claims adjuster told Todd that somehow the original paperwork had been “thrown away,” and therefore there was no proof that the knives and other items had not already been included. Completely irritated at the insurance system, I decided it was a good time to start dinner.

While standing in the patio, now turned kitchen, mindlessly rotating the sizzling potatoes on the camp stove, I thoughtfully scanned my surroundings. Cardboard boxes served as the food pantry, each neatly holding the necessary spices, canned food, and various pantry-type items. Other covered boxes held what little had been salvaged from the fire—a pot, two frying pans, and a few cutting knives. In the yard, I could see the silhouette of a tent still looming in the night. Our family had unanimously voted to stay in the yard rather than reside in a hotel. Everything they needed was here at home. Besides, the boys couldn’t bear to leave their dogs alone. As it was, we all had noticed the Chow had been moving a bit slower than usual since the fire.

Meka was the boys’ first pet, and she was a love. She had been abandoned in a parking lot, as the story goes. I first laid eyes on her when a parent of a student walked into the office holding this lion-cut, little puppy. It was love at first sight for me. After a couple of weeks, and a slightly pleading discussion with Todd, I brought her home to meet the family. She was a golden color and about two months old. The boys also fell in love with her immediately. Now at thirteen years old, she had earned alpha dog status among the family pets.

Meka lying regally at my feet, I grabbed the hot pad. While I continued preparing the evening meal, my mind wandered again, this time to Chris and Mateo.

Chris had inhaled more smoke than the doctors had originally thought, and he was now on an inhaling machine for his asthma. He had been in and out of work for the past four weeks, all due to the fire. The doctor wanted to him to stop working, but he was refusing. “After all, Mom,” he had said, “I have a car to pay for now.” I knew how hard it had been for Chris to find a full-time job with his bone disease. He was not physically able to do manual labor, and the college experience hadn’t gone so well either. When he landed the job at the local hospital, it was the best thing that could have happened to him at the time. He loved it, and they loved him back. Perfect!

Mateo’s asthma seemed to be okay. He had been opening all the windows in the house and trying to move the dogs out during the fire. I thought for a minute, Maybe that’s why he’s breathing okay. I was grateful for that. Unfortunately, though, poor Mateo had still been struggling with headaches. He always told me it was from work, but for a person to not feel good for so long was not right.

When Mateo began working for the software company, they didn’t offer the hospital plan I’d had him on since birth. And he hadn’t established a doctor for himself, so I figured, I guess I will have to do the “mom” thing and start nagging him to go back to the doctors.

Thoughts of Mateo’s birth always brought a smile to my face because I could always picture Chris’s adoring eyes the first time he saw his baby brother. Chris always called Mateo “his baby” and catered to his every need. Because they were so close in age and looks, I treated them like the “twins” most people thought they were. The two brothers were as close as could be; where one went, so did the other. Chris took care of Mateo because he was his younger brother, and Mateo took care of Chris because of the braces, casts, crutches, and multiple surgeries he had as a child. Yes, they fought. They argued, harassed, pranked and teased eachother. But don’t let anyone get between them . . . after all, they were brothers. Chuckling at that thought, I reached for a bowl and began cracking eggs.

Soon Todd came out to see what was cooking. The smell of frying bacon had eased itself into the garage where the boys were watching TV.

Todd loomed over the frying pan. “That smells good or I’m really hungry.”

I laughed. “How about both? It smells good and you are hungry.”

“Well, you know everything tastes better when you cook it outside,” he answered. “Is it almost ready?”

I began pouring the beaten eggs into the now sizzling pan. “Just about. How about you guys clear off the counter so I can put the food out?” I suggested.

Mateo and Chris cleared off the counter. Then Mateo came out to see if there was anything he could carry into the garage, and Chris pulled the eating trays out for everyone. Usually, the dogs hovered around my feet while I cooked, but tonight they were nowhere around. I asked the boys where Meka was.

“She is lying right here on the mattress, Mom,” one of them answered.

“Is she okay?” I asked. “She seems a little listless lately since the fire.”

“She’s fine, Mom. You worry too much,” Todd chastised me lightly.

“Well, okay,” I thought to myself. “Maybe I do worry too much about this family, dogs included.”

Dinner was delightful. There seems to be no better dinner than breakfast. I finished my plate and sipped my evening coffee, which Todd had brewed on the camp stove. Cleanup was easy now that I had a deep sink in the garage. I thought to myself, How smart was I when I insisted on having a deep sink installed when we renovated the garage! Little had I known how necessary it would later...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 8.10.2019
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Medizin / Pharmazie ► Medizinische Fachgebiete ► Onkologie
• ISBN-10: 1-5439-8725-7 / 1543987257
• ISBN-13: 978-1-5439-8725-6 / 9781543987256