by Dominique Chambers

Created on: February 16, 2007   Last Updated: March 03, 2007

Death of An Angel - My Feeble Attempt to Recover Through Blogging

I received the call at 1:00 AM. I was driving home from working a double shift at my waitressing job to spend a few hours with my newborn baby before heading to my next job. Thoughts swirled around my head concerning all my troubles and the usual drama that accompanies any position in the food service industry. Hearing my cell phone ring at that hour jolted me out of the reverie I had fallen into and made my heart start pounding to a panicked drumming. The only thing I could think about was my baby. When I saw Mickey's name flashing on my cell phone display, I calmed down and answered the line with a witty comment concerning what time it was. Mickey, being my best friend's husband, usually adores my humorous attempts at stirring up trouble, but this time there was just a silent response. Then, all I could hear was sobbing and the garbled words, "Dom. Kenley. hospital." Then, the line went dead.

I went directly to the hospital. My best friend, Kenley, was 32 weeks pregnant with a baby boy. Judging from the way Mickey sounded, I just knew that one or both of them were in serious trouble. As I squealed into the hospital lot with tires smoking and parked illegally, all the difficulties I had previously been obsessing over were obliterated by the current crisis. I sprinted into the lobby of Baptist Medical screaming questions at the befuddled receptionist. Whereas I feel bad now, and even apologized the next day, I have the distinct feeling that this was not the first time a crazed waitress in distress came tearing into that room like a tornado, babbling about babies and cursing anything that got in her way.
I finally managed to find Kenley and Mickey. As I approached room 249, Mickey came out with tears rolling down his face and body convulsing with the pain of his heart breaking. When he saw me, he hit the floor. I ran the short distance in what seemed like hours. Every movie I had watched on the Lifetime channel had not prepared me for this surreal moment. Mickey attempted to explain the situation between sobbing and gulping for air. Their baby had been in distress from a blood clot in the umbilical cord and had passed away. Evidently this is called 'fetal demise'.
I walked into the room and distinctly smelt the aroma of a nightmare. The mauve colored wallpaper sprinkled with white flowers melted together in my teary vision. In the darkened corner of the room came the sighs and sobs of a broken

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