A Wonderful Christmas Time

It was Christmas morning and we were in the hospital waiting room with my cousin Nina and my Aunt Lany. My dad still hasn't came to visit Uncle Mark. He had a grudge against his brother. Uncle Mark was always down on his luck. He worked at the flea market selling socks for a living. I don't think that my dad ever got over the fact that my uncle could have done so much more with his life.

My uncle divorced Aunt Lany two years ago. All of his children were grown (my cousins Connie, Gary, and Nina) and he never had a really close relationship with any of his kids. He didn't attend Connie's wedding because he didn't like her then-fiance, now ex-husband. He was a good dad, trying to support his family through working, but he just never had that closeness to his children the way they wanted him to be.

Things turned for the worse when he married his late brother's widow so she and her daughter could immigrate here. My Aunt Lydia went through a rough time when her husband passed away from leukemia at the age of 30. My cousin Anne, who is the same age as me, had to experience losing a father at a very young age. I couldn't begin to imagine the pain they both went through.

My Aunt Lydia can be a bitch sometimes. When she came to the hospital last night she made Nina cry. She blamed this whole thing on Nina, saying that she should have went to college straight out of high school and not have waited a year. Needless to say, she's not welcomed to see her husband when Nina's here.

My uncle was still unconscious. We were getting really worried about him. The doctor walked into Uncle Mark's room.

"Merry Christmas," he said, smiling. The smile quickly disappeared as he got down to business. "I wish we had some great news, but we're not sure of anything until he wakes up. We're not sure if he will be responsive if he wakes up. We can't lower his blood pressure too much because he's so used to the high blood pressure that it might cause even more problems if we dramatically lower it. We're doing it progressively. He might not be able to use his legs."

We were all shocked. I couldn't believe that he might not be able to walk. I started to cry for the thousandth time I've been at the hospital. I felt someone wrap their arms around me. I looked up and say my dad.

"It's going to be ok, sweetheart," he told me, kissing my forehead.

"He's waking up!" Brittany exclaimed. We all looked up and saw Uncle Mark slowly waking up.