If We Make It Through December

"What?" I asked her in disbelief. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Uncle Mark was our favorite uncle. He was the closest family member we have. I remembered when I was little, he would take me and Brittany out mini-golfing and to Disneyland. Brittany and I loved Uncle Mark.

"Honey, Uncle Mark had a stroke last night," my mom repeated. I knew that she was in shock also. I didn't know that Uncle Mark had enough health problems to cause a stroke. I would have done something to help. I would have stopped him from having the third slice of extra-extra-extra cheesy pizza and smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.

"Is he going to be ok?" I asked her.

"I don't know," she said, softly. "He's at Stanford Medical right now. He was airlifted from Valley Medical and he's not conscious."

"Are we going to go see him right now?" I asked her. She nodded.

"Go get your sister and get dressed," she said. "I'll call your dad and let him know what happened."

I went upstairs into Brittany's room and woke her up. She looked at the clock and mumbled something about it being the weekend into the pillow.

"Uncle Mark had a stroke," I told her, softly. She immediately sat up.

"What?" she asked. She had the same shocked expression as my mom did.

"We're going to go see him right now," I said. She nodded.

"Ok, let me get ready," she said, sadly.

I went in my room and quickly changed. I ran downstairs and found my mom waiting for us, looking a little distraught.

"What did Dad say?" I asked her.

"Nothing, he's not coming," she said. She saw Brittany running down the stairs. "Ok, girls, let's go. It's a long drive."

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It took us 3 hours to arrive at Stanford Medical. We couldn't find a free parking space on the street and had to settle for parking in the parking garage. We parked the car and went into the hospital. Our cousin, Nina, greeted us in the cafeteria. Brittany and I both hugged her.

"How are you doing?" we asked her at the same time. She smiled.

"I'm ok," she said. "I'll take you to Dad. He's in room 5." She brought us to his room in the intensive care ward. We weren't prepared to see Uncle Mark laying there.

"Oh goodness," my mom whispered.

"He's still not conscious yet," she explained. "He wasn't taking his medication for his high blood pressure. The nurse said that he's so used to the high blood pressure that they can't lower it too much or else it would cause some problems." Nina looked so sad.

"Where's Aunt Lany?" I asked her.

"She's outside in the waiting area," Nina said. "You guys stay here with him, I'm going to go check up on her." She left us alone with Uncle Mark.

I started to cry. I couldn't bare to see him with all of the tubes connected to his nose and mouth. He looked so still. It seemed that the Uncle Mark we knew was gone and another person was laying here in his body on the hospital bed. I walked over to the side of his bed and fixed his hospital gown. Brittany held his hand and squeezed. I took his other hand.

"We're here for you, Uncle Mark," I whispered to him. "Please wake up."