Personal Essay – Ideas
I remember that night, June 24th, 2005, I was 11 years, 2 months and 2 days old. It was late and my parents had already gone to the St Michael’s Hospital. As my head pounded, I lay on the couch, withering in excruciating pain. As I tried to make the pain go away, I heard the phone ring – its typical ring, ring, ring. It was my dad, his usual worried self and told me that my mom was doing well. He offered to drive me to the hospital and I, being home alone, reluctantly agreed.
I was looking at me pajamas, the pink Snoopy ones that my grandmother gave me which I’d loved so much at the time when suddenly, ding, it was the sixth floor and I got out and made my way to the room my mother was in. My headache temporarily disappeared when I saw my mother who was lying in the hospital bed, happy to see me. The events of that night and the following morning are memories that I will remember for the rest of my life.
I remember that night, I lay in a cold and uncomfortable futon at the left corner of my mother’s hospital room. I drifted in and out of sleep continually being plagued by my headache. When I finally got up it was around 4 am. I got up to walk around the room. It was a spacious room with a table and some chairs, a bathroom, a closet and what looked like a scale. I saw my mother, who was surrounded by a doctor and several nurses and a father who told me back to sleep.
I decided to listen to him and I went back to lie in the futon with the blankets all the way over my head. I heard the doctor tell my mom, ‘Breathe in deeply and breathe out’ and I tried doing the exact same thing, hoping to make it easier for her as well. My headache returned. It was extremely annoying; I wish my parents could have let me take some Advil or Tylenol at the time.
Many turns and twists later, it was already 5 am. ‘Keep pushing’, the doctor said and I got up to look at my mother. ‘Don’t look,’ she desperately pleaded with me and I stared confusedly...