Short stories: A beautiful blessing

It was right at New Year when Donna discovered she was expectant. She had mixed feelings. She did not know whether to be happy or not. She had just broken up with her fiancé two weeks to their wedding day. She was afraid to share the news with anyone since she did not want to be judged. She kept it to herself. As we all know, pregnancy is one of those things you cannot keep as a secret for long.

As the weeks passed, she started experiencing a lot of discomfort. As far as she could remember, this kind of discomfort was not linked to any of the pregnancy symptoms she knew. She visited the ante-natal clinic. Upon check-up, she was referred to a gynaecologist who discovered she had fibroids. It was also at that moment that she was told that her baby had a fifty-fifty chance of survival.

Donna became devastated. She realised that she actually wanted the child no matter what other people thought about her. She was ready to face whatever was going to come her way as long as she could get this one child. She prayed day and night asking God to protect her little baby. Life suddenly became too rough on her. Her world came down. Feeling all alone, she wished she had not broken up with her fiancé.

She made contact with Jim, for that was her ex-fiancé’s name, to see if they could get back together. She needed emotional support during this trying moment of her life. Jim was very welcoming kind to Donna. He even offered to take her for her next doctor’s visit. The day before the visit, Jim informed Donna that he had been scheduled for an emergency meeting the following day. He told her that his company was faced with a legal suit and all board members, managers and the company secretary were summoned to the meeting.

Naturally, Donna did not think that he was making this up in order to avoid accompanying her to the clinic. After the visit, Donna was distressed; the doctor told her she could easily lose her pregnancy. The drugs and therapy she was put on were not working. The fibroids in her womb were not making things easier either. Downcast, she called Jim. He did not answer his phone. She thought he was still in the meeting and that is why he did not answer the call.

She went home expecting Jim to call as soon as he winded up his meeting. Unfortunately, she slept not having heard from him. When she woke up the next day, she called him again. This time, the number was out of service. Donna did not understand what was happening. She decided to go on with her day as planned. She was going to visit her mother who was living in a different state. She needed to tell about the news of the pregnancy and her state of health personally.

Since she was exhausted and could hardly concentrate, she decided to take a flight. Her mother was so happy to see her. In her excitement, she baked coconut chocolate cake. This was her favourite and not Donna’s. Apparently, she always thought Donna liked that cake for some reason. As they had tea with the cake, Donna shared everything with her mother. Juliet’s heart went to her daughter. This was her only child.

They sat there for several hours without talking. They were so engrossed in their individual thoughts that they did not hear when someone came in through the door. They just saw this masked man in front of them with a gun ordering them to lay flat on the floor. They quickly obeyed the order. All they heard were footsteps in the house and within no time, they were gone. They had just been robbed. Shaken, Juliet peeped to see if they were gone. With a sigh of relief she stood up and checked on her daughter who was still lying face down.

Donna was in shock. Juliet had to call the paramedics. After first aid, Donna was better. Due to her condition, she was rushed to the hospital just to ascertain that her pregnancy was OK. She was spotting heavily. While on the way, she started complaining of a throbbing headache then she passed out. The paramedics tried all they could but they could not revive her. Upon arriving at the hospital, she was rushed to the Emergency Room.

In what seemed like eternity, the doctor finally came with some news to Juliet. Her daughter was fine. Her unborn grandchild however, was fighting for his dear life. Donna was given a complete bed rest for the next six weeks of her pregnancy. Her mother volunteered to take care of her during this time. When they tried contacting Jim, their efforts were futile. He could not be reached. To their surprise, when they tried his office, they were informed that he had not been to work for the last three months.

Donna felt cheated. Her fiancé had not been working or had changed jobs and had not informed her. Worse still, he did not leave his place of work the right way. Then she remembered why she had broken up with him. She discovered many deceitful things that Jimmy had done. Apparently, he was a master of disguise. She decided to forget about him, he could only bring her heartache.

Jim’s mother, Grace, called Donna to find out what happened. She had not been informed about the breakup. She only heard about it through rumours and gossips. Donna refused to tell her anything. Instead, she asked her to find out from her son what happened. Grace really liked Donna and could not come to terms with the fact that she was not going to be her daughter-in-law any more. She wanted her to reconcile with Jim. She felt that no other woman was ever going to be good enough for her son.

The pregnancy took a toll on Donna’s life. She became very weak. The doctor was convinced she was going to lose her pregnancy. She received special treatment and was closely monitored. When she became six months pregnant, the doctor was amazed. He said that this was the first case with the severity like Donna’s that had survived. To him, this was a miracle. Donna became hopeful. She decided to take one day at a time.

The rest of her pregnancy was almost normal. She regained her strength and resumed to her normal self. She even travelled back to her own state. Before long, she was due for delivery. She went to the hospital and as the nurse was checking her vitals, her phone rang. It was her mother. As they were talking, Donna realised the nurse had called for backup. She was critical. She was immediately rushed to the theatre.

Her water just broke, the pregnancy was breached and her blood pressure just shot up. It was chaotic. There were two doctors on call; one had a puncture and was miles away while the other one was already in the operating room with another patient. Donna was in intense pain. Luckily, there were several interns at the hospital that day. They quickly attended to her and soon enough, they delivered her of a baby boy. All this while, Donna kept her spirits high. When she saw her baby, she began to cry. There he was; the precious gift, a beautiful blessing.

Donna had been told that if she ever got pregnant again, neither she nor the child would survive. She was happy she did not terminate this pregnancy as she had been advised by the doctor at the early stages of pregnancy. If she had, she could have missed out on this precious beautiful blessing. Had she stayed with her fiancé, she could have lost her pregnancy due to stress and she could have not have seen this once in a lifetime blessing.