Chapter 11 - THE TRUTH BEHIND THE HOSPITAL DOOR
The hospital released additional records after my attorney requested the relevant information through proper channels.
The records confirmed what I'd already known.
My mother had been conscious for part of her final evening.
She had asked for Alexander.
She had asked whether Ethan was all right.
And she had repeatedly told the nurses she didn't want her grandson to be frightened.
One nurse remembered her clearly.
“Your mother was very gentle,” she told me.
I smiled through tears.
“She was.”
The nurse hesitated.
“There's something else.”
I looked up.
“She asked me to give you a message.”
My heart stopped.
“What message?”
The nurse smiled sadly.
“She said, 'Tell Claire she doesn't have to keep being brave for everyone else.'”
I began crying.
The nurse handed me a tissue.
“She also said, 'Tell Ethan I'm proud of him.'”
I covered my mouth.
For weeks, I'd been carrying the guilt of that night.
The calls.
The unanswered messages.
The moment my mother stopped breathing.
I'd wondered whether I should have done more.
Called someone else.
Driven to Alexander's office.
Demanded that he come.
But my mother hadn't wanted me to spend her final moments chasing a man who refused to answer.
She'd wanted me beside her.
And I had been.
That evening, I told Ethan what Grandma had said.
He sat beside me on the couch.
His eyes filled.
“She was proud of me?”
I nodded.
“Very.”
He looked down.
“Even when I cried?”
I hugged him.
“Especially then.”
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He smiled through tears.
And for the first time, we spoke about Grandma without feeling that the memory had to end in pain.
