On Christmas Eve 2022, it was my honor to tuck into bed my 6-year-old granddaughter, Emily. We said nighttime prayers, then she asked Santa for a bigger bike, stick-on earrings and an art set. I thought she was finished, but after a pause, she continued.
“I wish Mommy would be home from the hospital so that the whole family can be together for Christmas.”
I closed Emily’s door behind me. But I left pieces of my heart scattered on her bedroom floor.
Emily’s mother, my daughter-in-law, Kim Afflerbach, delivered healthy twin boys five days before at St. David’s Women’s Center of Texas in Austin. Shortly after delivery, she experienced cardiac arrest. The cesarean section surgery apparently opened a Pandora’s box of stagnant blood clots that gushed throughout her body.
Her heart stopped beating after one nefarious clot lodged in her main artery. Fast-acting nurses and doctors performed CPR and rushed her to the intensive care unit, where she remained Christmas Eve.
Christmas morning, Emily held little sister Avery’s hand as they walked downstairs together. Her shiny new bike awaited. Avery rushed to a Peppa Pig playhouse, dropped to her knees and squealed in delight.
The tree glowed in the early-morning light, and their nana removed golden-brown pigs in a blanket from the oven. I sipped hot coffee laced with Irish cream.
It looked like Christmas. It smelled like Christmas. It even tasted like Christmas. But it didn’t feel like Christmas. There was something missing—Mommy.
Christmas Day at a hospital is a rather solemn occasion. Folks carry on the best they can. A skeleton crew in the cafeteria dishes out turkey and dressing and gravy. Doctors and nurses and families of patients smile while passing in corridors and sharing elevators.
Kim remained sedated. She had received multiple transfusions by then and would need more. Yet doctors remained optimistic. They eschewed invasive surgery. And we waited.
Finally, Kim moved out of the ICU on New Year’s Eve and into a private room.
Come January 5, Emily’s father, Eric, pushed Kim’s wheelchair down hospital hallways toward the valet parking. Nurses, doctors and staff lined their exit route, clapping and waving, holding out flowers and balloons, and offering heartfelt goodbyes.
It’s often said that a request delayed is a request denied. But that’s not always so! Emily’s entire family celebrated Christmas 2023 at home together. Emily and Avery, twin brothers Bryson and Jackson, Daddy—and especially Mommy.
Although a year late, Emily’s Christmas wish came true.
