Free Moving Forward by Sara Hooper Page A

doctor said it will be this way for the next several hours. They are trying to keep him calm, but he is agitated. They have just given him a sedative. Do you want to see him before he goes to sleep?”
    Gina hesitated a moment, terrified to see him like this, afraid that if she didn’t, regret would consume her. Looking up at Shane, she asked, “Will you go in with me?”
    “Sure,” he replied. “Of course, I’ll go with you. May I?” he asked her mother.
    “Of course you may,” she replied quickly. “He should see you with Gina. He needs to face that.”
    As they stepped into the hospital room, Gina gasped at the sight of her father hooked up to so many machines, the heart monitor ticking erratically by his bed, a respirator down his throat. Shane held her elbow as she ventured closer to the father that had disowned her a month ago, and questioned the love of her life only two days before. Her emotions were laying on the edge of her skin; her eyes brimmed with tears. He knew her as soon as she came into his vision. She loved him, but she loved the man with her, too. The old man’s eyes flitted between her and Shane almost in panic. “What is it?” she asked her father.
    He could only grunt, but it was clear he was trying to tell her something. Shane came alongside the bed within her father’s vision. “Are you okay?” he asked, more as a doctor than an adversary.
    The old man answered with a nod, but his eyes continued to alternate between the couple. Just as a guess, Shane moved his finger between himself and Gina and raised his eyebrows, trying to ask the father if he approved of them. The tired, sick eyes glistened suddenly, warmly acknowledging the connection Shane had made. It was his own way of giving permission. Shane put his arm around Gina and pulled her close, kissing her on the forehead.
    The old man smiled slightly. “He approves of us,” Shane said to Gina. “He’s saying we are okay.” Her father nodded again, closed his eyes, and squeezed Gina’s hand. They stood by the bed for a few more minutes, listening to the beeping and clicking of the machinery. Shane pulled her close and led her quietly out of the room.
    They were sitting with her mother in the ICU waiting room when the doctor called them into the hallway and led them to a smaller office a few feet away. “Your husband has just passed away,” the doctor softly said. “Another cardiac arrest. He didn’t suffer; he just went quietly and calmly. I’m sorry.” The room was full of silence at first, and then heavy sobs wracked her mother’s body. Although her own shock was obvious, Gina quickly knelt by her mother, offering unselfish support as her own heart was breaking. In the blink of an eye , she remembered someone saying to her long before now, your life can change. Her father had just proven this. He had blinked his eyes in approval of her new life, then gave up on his.
    Shane stepped into the hallway and closed the door to the little room, leaving his Gina and her mother to collect themselves. He took care of everything at the hospital for them. No funeral arrangements or burial had been planned in advance, but Ms. Singh felt it best to send him back to India for burial. “He belongs there,” she had said. “He left India years ago, but his heart didn’t come with him. I want to send him home.”
    Shane took care of all the expenses, even at Gina’s refusal to accept it. He knew this modest family didn’t have the financial means to do it, but Shane did, ironically and selflessly providing with the money the old man had seen as a detriment. The thought crossed his mind that perhaps Gina’s father knew this day might come, thus he brought up the subject of Shane’s wealth. It didn’t matter, though; he loved the old man’s daughter, and had come to respect the father’s concerns.
    For several weeks following the departure of her father’s body, Gina seemed usually distant, not in a mean way, but in a reflective