Nora Ray (Ray Trilogy)

chapter Sixteen

Nora went to the library to check out books concerning heart problems, available treatments, or symptoms to look for leading up to the heart attack. It was time to know if her dad could have been saved had she been more aware and more knowledgeable.

She brought two arm loads full of books and spread them out on the table to read. She read and cross referenced them, comparing one against the other until she felt that she had a reasonable understanding of what was being presented in the books. The history of heart surgery fascinated her. It’s a shame people haven’t written more books on the subject she thought.

Day after day she read and studied on her days off or after work. She tried to relate the symptoms that she read to what she remembered of her dad.

Laura came in after her day at work and saw Nora sitting at the table again with her library books stacked all around her. She had put her hair in the braid she liked to wear but it looked like she had pulled at it so many times strands of blond hair stood out in all directions. Her bare feet were tucked around the legs of the chair with her old baggy jeans rolled up to her knees. She had tied her blouse into knot up high over her stomach to cool herself from the summer heat.

Laura asked, “Would you like another glass of iced tea?”

Nora looked at her empty glass absentmindedly, “Yeah, I think I would. Thank you, Mom.”

Laura filled both of them a glass and sat down at the end of the table.

“Mom, I have studied these books so much, but I’m still not sure about what caused Daddy’s heart attack.

“So that’s what’s bothering you,” Laura shook her head, affirming to herself what she thought was true.

“Yes, I was so young at the time, I don’t remember his symptoms, or even that he was sick really until that day he told me he had a bad heart.”

Laura nodded. “He tried so hard to not trouble you and Danny,” she said over the lump in her throat.”

“Same as you, I have thought about this, too.” Laura took a drink of her tea. “It seemed to come on him so slowly that it seemed something like a cold that wouldn’t go away, a cold without the runny nose and cough.”

“Did he have a spell sort of like the flu that landed him in bed for a day or two?” Nora asked thinking maybe he had a mild heart attack but they didn’t know what it was.

Laura studied for a minute looking around the room. “There was one winter when you were fifteen that he was sick most of the winter. It was strange because he didn’t have a head cold with it. Of course, he wouldn’t go to the doctor. He thought in a few days he would be okay again. By Spring, he was almost back to normal again.”

“Did he ever get his full strength back?” Nora asked.

“It didn’t seem like it to me,” Laura said thoughtfully, “He could be a stubborn one when he wanted to be.”

“When did he finally break down and go to the doctor?” Nora waved her hand, “I mean he had to have gone to get the diagnosis, because he told me had a bad heart. I suppose a doctor told him that.”

“Right,” Laura said trying to remember, “It was after you started your Junior year, it hurt him too much to lift the milk buckets. He gave in and went to the doctor.”

“Did the doctor tell him that he had a heart attack?” Nora leaned back in her chair and stretched her legs.

“He said that he must have had one at some time,” Laura stood up to refill her tea glass. “That’s when the doctor forbid him to lift anything over ten pounds. That’s also when we had to step up and carry the work load.”

Nora nodded remembering the back breaking work she and her mother had done trying to keep the dairy going.

“I’m not giving a diagnosis because I’m not anywhere near being a doctor, but from what I’ve read, it seems that Dad had congestive heart failure.” Laura said putting down her pencil.

Laura brightened up, “Yes, that’s the words that the doctor said, congestive heart failure.”

“Congestive heart failure is when a person has probably had multiple heart attacks which cause myocardial infarction. I’m guessing that he had a blockage to the heart that had been there so long that the part of the heart which had been blocked was either atrophied or it just possibly dead.”

“My guess is,” Nora said softly, “that since he didn’t go to the doctor when he was having those flu like symptoms, that may be when he was having the heart attacks. Heart attacks can be so bad that they take a person immediately or in Dad’s case mild enough that he could excuse them but they still got him in the end.”

“It was after we went to the doctor that he started trying to find a buyer for the dairy farm.” Laura started rubbing her eyes. “It was such a hard decision at the time. Necessary, just the same.”

Nora saw her mother grab her trembling chin.

Danny and Aaron came in the front door, “Anybody got anything to drink?” Danny asked. He stopped when he saw that Nora and his mother were in a serious conversation.

“Did I interrupt something? Danny asked.

Aaron stood at the door, rolling his eyes from one to the other like he wasn’t sure whether he should leave or stay.

“Come on in, Aaron,” Nora invited. “We were talking about selling the dairy farm. You already know about that.”

He nodded and walked over and leaned against the cabinet near Danny.

“Are you sorry, Mom, that we moved to town?” Danny asked concerned.

“It’s difficult to understand, Danny. I think your Dad and I made the right decision to move to town. Especially, since we weren’t able to work the dairy. I actually enjoy living here where everything is convenient for the three of us.” She rubbed the back of her neck as if she were trying to erase the memories.

“My regret,” Laura explained, “is that your Dad and you children lost your inheritance. That land had been in the Ray family for five generations. It should have been yours.”

Danny went to his mother and put his arms around her neck and hugged her, “You don’t worry about that land, Mom.”

“Aaron and I are going to be football players. Someday we will go professional. Won’t we, Aaron?” he looked to Aaron for confirmation.

Aaron shook his head earnestly.

Everybody will watch us play on television.” He said as he waved his hands in a circular motion. “When I am rich, I will buy that land back. You’ll see.”

Laura smiled and kissed him, “How about I get you thirsty boys some iced tea?”

Jeremy worked in his impromptu lab from early morning until Nora came by after work and they would go to the evening meal together.

They sat across the table from each other at Pat’s Café waiting on their food. Jeremy reached over to hold Nora’s left hand so he could watch the diamond glisten in the light.

He chuckled remembering the time they told his Dad about their engagement. “Do you remember the look on my Dad’s face when we showed him your engagement ring?”

She laughed thinking about it, “He came in after playing golf all day with some of his attorney buddies.”

“You wore a dress with big pockets so you could keep your left hand hidden so he couldn’t see the ring until we found the right time to tell him.”

“Your Mom was really good to not let the cat out of the bag until we were ready, even though she was so excited, she couldn’t keep the big smile off her face.”

“Yeah, Dad was suspicious, he knew something was up but he didn’t know what.”

“Fortunately your Mom sent the boys to the movies or out to friends, so they weren’t there to tell him because they couldn’t have kept it quiet.”

“Yeah, Mom is amazing like that,” Jeremy said bragging on her. “She fixed these big sugar cookies with yellow and red icing on them.” He laughed, “I guess she wanted to sweeten him up.”

“By the time she was through with him, he didn’t have it in him to get upset with us,” Nora laughed reminiscing.

Nora continued, “She fed him his favorite meal, poured red wine in those tiny goblets. Then she made over him and flirted with him until he was so distracted, he almost forgot we were in the room.”

“Then she told him that we had something to tell him.” Jeremy smiled, “When you showed him the ring, I said, ‘Dad, I’ve asked Nora to marry me.’”

“That look on his face was priceless.” Nora shook her head with a smug smile. “You could tell he was unhappy about it. His face turned red, his eyes narrowed. Remember he sat up real straight in his chair like he just woke up. He pointed his finger at us like he wanted to say something but Samantha said, ‘Darling, I am so excited that our Jeremy is going to get married! Just think we’re getting our daughter we always wanted.’”

“Then she grabbed the finger he had pointed and kissed it,” Jeremy remembered. “That took all of the sting out of him.”

“In spite of how powerful he may be in the court room, she has him so wrapped around her little finger at home,” Nora said.

“I can promise you, my beautiful Nora, things are exactly as he wants them.”

At that time their food arrived. They had ordered roast beef, mashed potatoes with brown gravy, steamed carrots, iced tea and cherry pie ala mode.

“This food looks so good!” Jeremy exclaimed as he dug in. “I didn’t realize I was this hungry.”

After they had eaten, Nora said, “By the way, there is something that I need to tell you. This will be my last year at Oklahoma City. I found out that after the second year of medical school one fourth of students transfer to Tulsa to finish. Tulsa is where the doctorate program is, so moving there helps the students get started in the hospitals and get acquainted with the doctors and other people they need to know.”

Jeremy sat there in silence contemplating how this would affect the decisions he needed to make. “Have you given any thought to when you want to get married?”

“I have, Jeremy. Would you like to get married as soon as school is out in the spring?” Nora asked.

“I would like to get married tonight,” Jeremy winked at her and ate the last bite of pie that she had left in her plate.

Nora raised her eyebrows at his non-answer, “Me, too. Now, how about next spring?”

“Well, Sweetheart, I am obligated to return to Harvard this year because of my project I am working on. My professor there will help me develop my ideas and set up the process to prove my theory. I’m not sure that one year is enough to fully process all the data necessary, but I believe that within a year I can set up something with Oklahoma University in Tulsa to continue in a greenhouse there.”

“And?” Nora asked tapping her foot.

“As for marrying you, if you want to wait until next year in the spring when we come home, then that’s the way it will be,” Jeremy said.

“Thank you.” Nora went on to explain her reasoning, “I thought that by next year, well, at least we both will have two years of college behind us. It will give us time to set up a house to live in.” Warming up to her subject, “Jeremy, won’t that be exciting to have our own house?”

“I promise you, my beautiful Nora. This will be the last time we will ever live apart and not have our own house.”

“Jeremy, I don’t want it any other way.”