Carry the Light Read Online Free PDF

mother’s illness was progressive and ultimately terminal only increased her anxiety. She had called both of her sons twice to inform them about their grandmother’s condition. Alex and Richard had each promised to keep in closer touch by telephone and to come home soon. In the meantime, Ellie knew that if she hoped to establish a loving relationship with her mother, the time was now.
    After praying for the gift of the time she and her mother needed together, Ellie put the convertible top up again, locked her car, grabbed the suitcase out of the trunk and headed across the asphalt parking lot.
    Inside the hospital, she followed the now-familiar route to the visitors’ desk for a pass, took the elevator to the fifth floor cardiac unit and went directly to her mother’s private room.
    She tapped on the half-open door. “Mother, it’s me, Ellie,” she said as she nudged the door open.
    Straight ahead, wearing the aqua dress she had worn to the doctor’s office, her mother sat in a wheelchair with her hands clutching her handbag and her lips set in a forlorn frown. A large plastic bag sat on the floor at the foot of the freshly made bed. The heavy smell of disinfectant filled the air.
    Her mother’s bottom lip quivered. “You took your sweet time getting here. I was afraid you’d changed your mind and decided to send me to a nursing home.”
    Ellie put the suitcase on the floor, laid her purse and the visitor’s pass on the overbed table, and moved a chair to sit down next to her mother. “I told you that I had to go into work today, but that I’d be here by five o’clock. Why are you dressed to go home? The doctor said you wouldn’t be discharged until tomorrow, and I took the day off to bring you home with me,” she said gently, concerned that her mother seemed to be getting more forgetful.
    â€œI got discharged right after breakfast this morning,” her mother countered. She opened her purse and pulled out a wad of papers. “See for yourself. I’ve been cleared to go home for hours and hours, but I guess you were too busy at work to leave. I would have called Phyllis’s daughter, but she took her mother to New York City today to see a Broadway show. The nurses were awfully nice to me, though. They gave me lunch and dinner, even though I wasn’t supposed to be here.”
    Ellie skimmed the paperwork and sighed with frustration. “No one called me. Why didn’t anyone call to tell me you’d been discharged early?” she asked, more upset with the hospital than with her mother.
    â€œThey probably left a message for you at school. You just never called them back, which doesn’t surprise me. You never seem to call me back before I leave five or six messages.”
    Ellie gritted her teeth. “I gave the hospital my cell phone number so I could be reached immediately,” she argued. “Can I take you home with me now, or am I supposed to let someone know you’re leaving?” she asked as she skimmed through the discharge orders, the diet plan her mother had to follow, more prescriptions than Ellie had ever seen at one time and a stapled set of papers that included information about the nurse who would be coming to the house.
    â€œI think you’re supposed to tell someone. I don’t think you’re allowed to take me downstairs by yourself,” her mother said. “But do hurry. I’m getting sore from sitting in one spot all day.”
    Ellie handed the papers back to her mother. “Keep these for now. I’ll check about what to do, and be right back.” She retraced her steps to the nurses’ station. Not recognizing either of the two nurses on duty, she kept her anger in check. “My name is Ellie Waters. My mother is Rose Hutchinson, in room four seventeen. I understand she’s been discharged, and I can take her home now. Is that correct?”
    The younger nurse, who