Silence
fills most of our time at home over the coming days. It isn’t
awkward or strange. It is a respectful silence. The kind that
understands that there are no words that could possibly encompass the
feelings Will is dealing with. He is reliving so much of the pain
that his father inflicted upon him and Michael, as well as their
half-sisters, through his act of abandonment. The silence also comes
because Will is also using most of his daily word allotment with
Michael. When Michael is here at the house, Will won’t shut up.
He’s cramming in a lifetime of conversations each day because
we don’t know what tomorrow will bring.
We’re
so grateful that Will has such good guys working for him, too. They
gladly took on some extra work and responsibilities when Will cut
down his time in the shop when the babies were born. He’s in
the shop even less these days, giving as much of his free time to
Michael as possible. It’s meant so much to us that Will gave
them all a hefty bonus in their last checks.
“So
… we haven’t talked in a while. How are you?” I
climb into bed next to Will and he welcomes me under his arm. I rest
my head on his chest and sigh. In spite of all the sadness that seems
to be lingering around us right now, this is always my happiest,
sweetest spot.
“Today
was a hard day,” he says.
“Michael’s
going fast, isn’t he?”
“Yeah,
but watching him waste away wasn’t the only difficult thing
today. His birthday is next month.”
“Oh.”
I immediately realize where Will is going.
“I
just got my brother and I’m not even going to get to celebrate
a birthday with him.”
“I’m
sorry, babe. That sucks.” I push myself up and nuzzle Will’s
neck before kissing his cheek. We lie there together in quiet
contemplation. Will strokes my arm gently, inviting a gaggle of goose
bumps to rise with each pass. All I can think is that I wish Will had
more time with him. Just one more year to celebrate his birthday and
every important holiday is all I’m asking for.
“I
have an ambitious idea.” I sit up and turn to face Will. Seeing
the look on my face, Will shimmies himself up and leans against his
pillow on the headboard awaiting my announcement. “Who says we
can’t celebrate his birthday now? In fact, who says we can’t
celebrate every holiday that we’re going to miss with him now?”
I raise my eyebrows in anticipation of Will’s reply.
“What
are you talking about?” His face is scrunched together in
confusion.
“Let’s
give him a birthday party. Let’s have Christmas, and
Thanksgiving, and Easter! Hell, let’s celebrate Arbor Day! The
point is there is nothing that says we have to wait until those
actual days to celebrate. We can have a whole day that celebrates
every holiday we aren’t going to get with him.”
Will
sits up and looks me square in the eye. “You are the most
brilliant woman on the planet. God, I’m so glad you’re
mine!” He pulls me to him and kisses me hard. “Seriously,
babe, that is the best idea I’ve ever heard.”
“Okay,”
I begin as the wheels start really turning. “I’m going to
need the moms’ help. I’ll see if Carol can watch the
girls while Mom, Eliana and I go shopping. You said Michael has a
doctor appointment on Wednesday morning, right?” Will nods as
he follows along. “Great! That gives us a day to shop. We won’t
have much time on Wednesday, but if you take him to the appointment
then we should be able to get to their house and decorate.”
“Do
you think Rachel will go for it?”
“I
think she’s going to bawl her eyes out with joy over it!”
Sleep
evades us most of the night because excitement has taken residence in
its place. We doze off for a bit, and then one of us will say, “Are
you awake?” in a hushed tone. To which the other one always
says, “Yes, and I have another idea.”
I
texted both Mom and Eliana in the night and told them our idea. Mom’s
text reply came almost immediately. Eliana’s comes just before
sunrise. I have to force myself to wait until the sun is fully up
before I call Rachel. When I tell her our plan, she is overwhelmed
with joy and agrees to everything I suggest. Carol is a lifesaver and
agrees to watch the girls while the moms and I go shopping for
everything we need. Between food, gifts, and the perfect decorations
for our day of celebrating, it’s a lot. We hit five different
stores and call a rental company for the pipe and draping we need.
They charge us an arm and a leg for the last minute rental, but it’s
going to be totally worth it to see the look on Michael’s face.
We
split up and each head to our attics for the holiday decorations
we’re going to need and then reconvene back at my house. We
spend hours sorting through everything and making a master plan.
Rachel and I will do all the cooking while Mom and Eliana decorate.
It’s going to be perfect!
It’s
early, just after seven, when Mom, Eliana, and I follow Will all the
way to Michael’s. We pull up to the next road and keep an eye
out for them to leave the dirt road for the paved one and head in the
direction of Michael’s doctor. We have to be quick. We’ve
only got a few hours before Carol is going to bring the twins and
Will returns with Michael.
I
knock excitedly on the storm door and it takes only seconds before
Rachel is answering. “Hey!” I squeal.
“I
can’t believe you’re doing this!” she says, tears
forming in her eyes.
“I’m
just glad you agreed.” We hug and she helps haul everything
into the house just as the rental people arrive with the pipe and
drape.
“What’s
that for?” Rachel’s face is a mixture of confusion and
joy. Her eyebrows are furrowed together and her smile is so big that
her cheeks are making her eyes disappear.
“You’ll
see!” I say cryptically. “So, not that it matters, but do
you think he’s going to love or hate this?”
“Well,
he loves holidays but hates birthday parties. So it’s kind of a
crap shoot.”
“Perfect!”
Will
texts me when they are leaving the hospital, giving us our one-hour
countdown, so I call Carol to bring the girls. It wouldn’t be a
family celebration without them, and Michael and Rachel have formed a
sweet bond with them already.
“Wow.
I can’t believe what we accomplished in three hours.”
Rachel covers her mouth as we walk from room to room surveying the
transformation each space has taken. “Thank you so much for
this, all of you.” Tears begin to stream down Rachel’s
face. I can only imagine the mix of emotions she is feeling. How
would I feel if the love of my life were slipping away right before
me? What would I think as I knew our days were numbered? When would I
stop being able to hold it together all the time and just collapse?
The
food for our first course, Christmas brunch, is warming in the oven
while Eliana—a.k.a. the best mother-in-law on the planet—holds
down the fort in the kitchen prepping for our Thanksgiving feast to
come this evening.
Will
pulls into the space next to my car, and I can imagine Michael asking
what I’m doing here, to which Will gives him a vague answer
about their wives becoming wonderful friends. We all stand in the
large entry with party hats on our heads, and streamers and silly
string at the ready. Rachel is beaming and all the excitement is
about to explode from inside her.
The
storm door creaks open and we all hold a collective breath in
anticipation. Michael’s feet have barely crossed the threshold
when we can’t hold it in any longer.
“SURPRISE!”
Our voices are so loud that they echo through the whole house.
Michael
is stunned, to say the least. It’s a good thing Will is right
behind him because he takes a step backward as our celebratory shouts
knock him over.
“What’s
going on here?” He laughs.
“This
is your surprise birthday party, honey!” Rachel says. She
throws her arms gingerly around him and kisses him sweetly. He is
weak, and becoming frailer every day, so she is gentle with him.
“But
my birthday …” he begins.
“We
don’t care when your actual birthday is. We’re not going
to let time deter us from sharing life’s most important
celebrations with you.” Will drapes his arm over Michael and
smiles. “I get to have one birthday with my big brother.”
Michael
is moved. If his complexion were not so pale, he may have been able
to hide his struggle to hold back the tears that want to cascade down
his face.
He
swallows hard. “This is amazing. Thank you.”
It’s
a big deal for him to give into the moment and just say “thank
you.” This time developing a relationship with us has broken
Michael’s pride as he’s allowed us in.
We
settle in the front room where a cake and gifts are waiting. Will
helps Michael sit in his favorite wing back chair. A family heirloom,
it was Rachel’s grandfather’s and has been passed down to
each generation. Before we go any further, Michael tells us the
beautiful story of when Rachel’s father gave it to him before
he passed. He lay dying in his room upstairs and used some of his
last breaths to tell Michael how much he meant to him, and that it
would mean the world to him if he would take the chair as his own,
and one day pass it along to his son.
“Will
… I want you to have the chair,” Michael says softly.
“Oh,
Michael, are you sure? Wouldn’t it mean more for Rachel to keep
it?” Will replies.
“She
hates this damn thing!” He laughs. “One day you and Layla
may have a son, and I want you to pass it down to him.”
“Well,
only if it’s okay with Rachel.”
“Oh,
for the love of all that is holy, please take the chair!”
Rachel laughs.
Will
echoes her laugh. “Okay then! Looks like we’ve got a new
chair coming to us!”
Michael
is just about to blow out the candle on his cake when Carol arrives
with Natalie and Claire.
“There
they are!” Will says, meeting Carol at the door and relieving
her of one of the car-seat carriers. The girls are dressed in the
sweetest pink party dresses, white ruffled socks, and pink patent
shoes.
“This
must be a magical candle to grant me my wish before I even blow it
out,” Michael says, beaming. “I was afraid my birthday
celebration wasn’t going to include the most beautiful girls in
the world!”
He
sits back in the chair and we put both girls in his arms. It’s
beautiful and sad to watch him with them. He and Rachel wanted to
have children but it never happened. And then when he got sick, the
possibility of becoming parents was destroyed.
I
pull my phone out and take a dozen shots to add to the growing
collection of pictures of Michael and our new family. Carol stays and
takes several pictures of all of us together before heading back to
the kitchen to help Eliana.
We
eat cake and Michael opens his gifts, laughing at the “old”
gag gifts Will got him. “I’m only thirty-eight, man!”
he’d say. He loves the blanket I found for him. It’s a
patchwork of old sweaters stitched together with a warm lining. He
gets cold pretty easily these days.
His
last gift is really for both him and Rachel. It’s an album of
pictures I’ve been taking over the last months. There are
pictures of Michael and the girls, him and Will, and all of us
together. Some are staged but a lot of them are candid pictures he
didn’t know I was taking. Those are my favorite pictures, as
they show the light and joy in Michael’s eyes, even when his
body started taking a turn for the worse.
“This
is beautiful,” Michael says through the tears he isn’t
even remotely trying to hide. “I love it.
We
love it.” He takes Rachel’s hand and kisses it.
“So,”
he says, collecting himself. “If I recall that whirlwind of an
entrance earlier, you said something about celebrating life’s
most important
celebrations
.
Plural. What else do you have up your sleeves? And … do I
smell a turkey?”
“Well,
Mr. Meadows, we do have a few more surprises for you,” I say
with a snicker. I’m giddy with anticipation.
“Uh
oh!” he exclaims.
Will
helps Michael up from his seat and escorts him to the family room.
There is a pipe and draping shielding the room from view. Michael
cocks an eyebrow up and looks at me suspiciously with a smile.
“And
what, exactly, is behind door number two?”
“I
hope you’re ready for this,” I warn. With that, I pull
the draping aside and reveal a Christmas winter wonderland. A
seven-foot tree is fully decorated in the corner of the room with a
train and track encircling it. Icicle lights trim the perimeter of
the ceiling and an entire Christmas village has taken residence on
the top of the baby grand piano in the bay window. And presents. Lots
of presents are under the tree for all of us. Rachel was so excited
about the presents that she was able to sneak out yesterday and buy a
few from them to us. I told her she didn’t have to do that, but
she insisted participating in the gift giving.
Leaning
against Will, Michael covers his mouth with both hands in utter
shock. I look at Will, feeling accomplished in creating a day that is
already full of love and joy. A day that none of us will ever forget.
A day full of memories that will trump the sad ones upon us.
Will
holds back his own tears as he looks at Michael. “Merry
Christmas, brother.”
We
were gifted eleven more days with Michael before he passed.
Four
days after the day we celebrated Michael’s birthday, Christmas,
and Thanksgiving, he took a turn for the worse. We brought Hospice in
to help, as each day was touch and go. Will pretty much moved in and
spent every waking hour, and then some, by Michael’s side. He
read Michael’s favorite books aloud to him and helped feed him
what little he could keep down. Eventually Michael stopped eating
altogether because his body just couldn’t process anything. His
mother, Victoria, was there for his last three days on this earth.