Reports were called in to a 9-1-1 dispatcher about a hit-and-run accident near interstate 285, a major highway in Atlanta, Ga. Joy rushed to the hospital as soon as she heard the news her husband's car had been involved. She arrived to the ER in a panic. Leaning over her husband's bedside, Joy was so devastated by what she saw. "No! Not my baby! Please do something!", Joy screamed as she hugged him closer, getting blood all over her clothes. His prognosis was not good. He was unrecognizable. He had been smashed by a truck. His body was completely swollen from all the hospital fluids. But Joy did not give up. Everyday she stayed by his bedside praying he would recover. He was in a medically-induced coma and had tubes coming from everywhere. The doctors didn't expect him to live long.
A couple of weeks after the accident, Joy found out that her husband was actually brain dead. The doctors told her that he would not survive, as his organs were shutting down. Joy had a decision to make. She could not accept the reality of losing him, but she didn't want him to continue to suffer either. If she pulled the plug, she would be left alone. Something she was not prepared for. After much consideration, she made the difficult decision to let him go. She stood by her husband's bedside in a daze as the medical staff removed him from all the machines one by one while they monitored his vitals. After several minutes, they all watched as Joy's husband slowly slipped away. His heart came to a complete stop. He was pronounced dead! Joy fell to the floor sobbing profusely. "Why me, God?...Why?"
Losing Faith...
After losing her husband, Joy also lost her faith. She was now alone and mad with God for taking away the only thing she felt ever meant anything to her. After the funeral she became isolated and depressed. She had taken leave from work and spent most of her days crying and drinking. Not a day went by that she didn't think about her husband and the love they shared. She could only reminisce about her favorite part of their honey moon...sitting under a palm tree on the beach. But those thoughts were quickly replaced by feelings of abandonment and despair. Joy was in so much pain she started using pills to cope. Her doctor had prescribed her anxiety pills and she was taking several per day. However, this was not enough to replace the grief she was feeling. She needed something else to fill the void. Joy started going to bars and picking up random men. She was having sex with them in bathrooms, cars and hotels...wherever she could. She got a high every time she engaged in sexual acts and in that moment, she was numb...She didn't feel any pain.
Revelation...
Joy repeated the same behavior over the next several months until one day she met a person who would change her life. Joy met the one person she started to like. He was a handsome, young man in his late thirties. She met him in a bar and they would start having sex in the bathroom and again at hotels. One day during pillow talk, he said he had done something really horrible that he had never told anyone. Feeling comfortable with Joy, he confessed, "Do you remember hearing about that fatal accident on I-285 a few months ago? Well, that was me! I was the guy that ran away and I feel so bad about it. It's been haunting me." Joy was in shock! As she sat naked on the edge of the hotel bed covered in a blanket, she couldn't believe what she was hearing. Speechless, she got up, grabbed her clothes and ran into the bathroom. How could this be happening?, she thought. As Joy was getting dressed, she started thinking. Maybe this was not a chance meeting. Perhaps it was divine intervention or just plain fate. What if I can get him to turn himself in?, she thought. Pushing past the fact that she just slept with the man who killed her husband, she figured she would give it a try. Without revealing her identity, she was able to convince the young man to do the right thing. It wasn't easy but she drove him to the police station and watched as they put the handcuffs on him. It was then that she realized she didn't have to drink or sleep with men to escape her life. Joy learned that God had never forsaken her. That life has a way of coming full circle when you least expect it. Not only did she find herself again, but she found solace in knowing justice was served for her husband's death.
Great story I want more
ReplyDeleteThank you! Perhaps this one will make the list for my novels.
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