Chaper 21. Repercussions

Emily

Without knowing how, or why, I was suddenly pulled back from my husband´s memories and unbearable pain, even more intense than any physical pain I had endured so far, engulfed me. If I had been able, if my body had not been paralyzed, if I had not been only an observer who had come to live in the flesh what I had asked God to give me access to see, I would have done all in my power to wake up and beg my family for forgiveness. I knew there was much more to see, but what I had seen so far had left me submerged in an ocean of painful fire.

Invisible tears began to run down my eyes incessantly, and like a litany, I began to repeat the same words over and over: "I am sorry. I am so, so sorry. God, please help me!"

At that moment I felt a soothing warmth igniting inside my chest, and it reminded me that I was not alone. I just had to trust that my friends were there with me even if invisible for now.

Inside the cocoon of darkness that was my mind, I felt myself sitting, at least that´s what I thought I was doing and placing my head between my knees. Powerful sobs began to erupt from inside me as my mind played what I had seen and felt from my husband and my children. How had I not thought about the damage I would be causing? How had I not seen that my family were not a pack of fools who were oblivious to what was going on with me?

It had particularly shocked me to see how what I had thought I had been successful in hiding had been common knowledge for my family. Each of them had known I had been in a bad place, but I had never, ever, given them the chance to approach me and help me. I had robbed them of the chance of being able to do something, generated a sense of helplessness in them and the results had been something I had not considered.

When I had seen my daughter Samantha´s worry, Jamie´s panic, and Brian´s mixture of pain and anger, I had known that I had not only been wrong, but I had also been selfish by forgetting that I had been a central part of their lives. And by disappearing from their lives, I had turned their worlds upside down.

Suddenly, one particular memory of what I had seen crossed my brain, and it honestly left me breathless. The sixth man, the leader of the rescue team, had been Abraham, The Abraham, and He had not only made an appearance to help my family, but He had done so to become the support they needed to survive what was to come.

However, what became life-altering for me at that moment was when within my soul and then my mind, two events that I had not known then had been happening at the same time, connected. While my body had been soaring through the air, and within me, I began to question and challenge God´s existence because He seemed not to care, He had not only been intervening to save me, but He had also responded to my challenge by supporting my family.

Utter shame engulfed me because I began to see how wrong I had always been. But more than that, I began to feel a very strong sense of connection and love reforming within my heart for Abraham.

At that moment I promised with all my heart that if I was given a chance to go back to life, I would dedicate it to telling the world the truth; that God loves us and that God cares. That would, from now on, be the cornerstone of my life.

And then I began to work out another fact that we people tend to forget. From the beginning, we had enjoyed a life that had been made free of pain and suffering. God had given that to us when He created us because He had always wanted us to be happy. However, because He had wanted Man to choose to establish with Him a relationship of Love, He had also given us something else, freedom. And it had been us, and it kept being so, who had chosen to exert that freedom and asked Him to step aside and let us decide what is good and what is bad for us. In doing so our link to Him had been broken and with that, all the consequences of the entrance of Death and Evil into the world, including pain and suffering, had been set loose.

And yet we, huge hypocrites, did not only fail to recognize that the wrongs in this world had been born from our misguided choices and that the consequences of our wrongdoings were not acts of cruelty from God but the natural result of our new condition, but we also expected Him to continue protecting us as if we had done nothing wrong.

In fact, despite having betrayed God´s trust and Love, and having pushed Him out of our lives, we still dared to challenge Him, and we conditioned our belief in Him to His proving Himself to us by preventing pain and suffering from happening to us.

Indeed, many of us believed that if God truly was a loving Father, then He would surely always protect us, keep us safe, and remove all harm.

The funny part of all this was that all humans, all of us, often forgot a very wise saying: with great power, comes great responsibility. And God had given us that power not only by creating us in His likeness and image but by giving us freedom.

However, He had also warned us about the danger we were facing if we exerted that freedom lightly. And while we all loved the part of choosing, none of us have ever wanted to accept the part of great responsibility. Instead, we preferred to either blame God for not preventing pain and suffering from happening or, we simply said that God is a myth.

Today, despite the pain I had endured and seen, this was the first lesson I wanted to send forth to those who would listen to me; God always cares, and God is always ready to help. But He will always respect our freedom, and we need to start learning to accept the repercussions that all our choices, good and bad, generate. In a nutshell, we need to start taking a dose of responsibility for what we do.

At that moment I closed my eyes and with heartfelt love for Abraham, God the Father, I thanked Him for having intervened. I still had questions about what I had seen, about His having been present at the time my family had needed Him most, but I now knew and believed with all my heart that everything had a reason for being, and that He knew why that intervention, and especially me witnessing it, was an important part of this journey. I hoped only that one day He would let me know what that reason had been.

Right then, I heard the shuffling of clothes approaching my bed and soon the amazing aroma of my beloved husband surrounded me again. I just so wanted to be able to communicate with him, let him know how much I loved him, that it became a consuming desire. However, I knew that the time had not yet come.

Suddenly, I felt my husband´s lips kissing as close to my own as my breathing tube allowed, and my bed dipping as he laid himself right next to me, hugging me as best as he could, given the amount of machinery and tubes I had on. And as soon as the connection was established, I was pulled back into his thoughts.

I had never been more grateful as I really wanted to know more.

Jamie

As we continued our ascension through the mountain trail, I found myself engulfed by a lot of mixed thoughts and emotions that were battling against each other.

On the one hand, I could not help but feel deeply pained and disappointed in Emily. I even felt a twinge of strong anger against her. Why had she always closed herself off to me regarding her innermost feelings? Weren´t we supposed to be partners in good and in bad times? Why hadn´t she allowed me to help her? Did she really think that I would be blind to the pit of darkness that had been swallowing her whole?

But then strong waves of empathy bubbled forth from within me, powered by the deep love I had for her, and the anger and disappointment subsided, even if only a little bit. Then, utter grief, sadness, and sheer panic would also come to take a bite out of my heart when I thought about the possibility of never seeing my wife again, and the cycle would restart. In a few words, I was a mess. The only absolute truth I had in my life now was that I loved her with all my heart and that´s how it would always be.

I had been so lost in my thoughts and paying so little attention to the track, that I did not see a tree branch that was standing in my way, and my left foot caught in it, sending me rocketing towards a very painful fall.

However, my body never made it to the ground. I soon became aware of a strong and warm hand that despite its size had gently taken hold of my arm and had stopped my fall. And when I looked up at the owner, I found myself staring straight into deep brown eyes that beheld me as if I were the most precious person to Him. Of course, when I thought that, my first reaction had been to pull away, but then a voice from within me, a voice that was really sweet and gentle, soothed me and I allowed myself to relax.

Abraham helped me to straighten back up without saying much, but to be honest, this was one of those moments when words were absolutely useless. And it was not because I thought a thank you was unnecessary. But because the sensations and emotions surrounding me while remaining in contact with Abraham, and the voice inside me that was still soothing me, made me feel that words would have broken a very sacred and precious moment. The only moment since this whole nightmare had begun that I actually was able to feel a bit of inner peace to collect myself and place my emotions under control.

In those short minutes of silence and peace, I was unable to stop myself from wondering who this guy was and why he was making me feel as if we shared a connection of kinship. But I did not dare to voice those thoughts out loud, and from the smile that Abraham suddenly showed me, I understood that no questions were necessary either, as it seemed that he somehow knew exactly what had been inside my mind.

Abraham simply released me, still smiling, and without another word turned and continued on his way. I began to follow him, and it was then that awkwardness made its ugly appearance as I realized I had not thanked the man for having helped me. And I was about to open my mouth to express my gratitude when I suddenly became aware of two things. First, Abraham had brought his head up, and as I came to stand by his side, I was shocked to see that his eyes seemed to be glowing.

However, I had no time to look closer, or even ask myself if that was possible because the two of us became aware of the sharp sound of barking from the rescue dogs.

At the sound, the two of us immediately began to rush towards the end of the track as if our lives had depended on it. Maybe for Abraham that was not the case, but for me, it was very true.

We soon broke clear of the trees and found ourselves before a landscape that was so beautiful and at the same time so terrifying, that it almost took my breath away. It definitely distracted me for a few seconds, anyways.

It seemed impossible to me that this amazing place, where both the beauty and the power of nature mixed, could become the source of my worst nightmare. But so it would be soon enough.

A huge and gorgeous valley filled with grass and flowers of all shapes, sizes, and colors stood right before me, and in the middle of it, cutting it in half I saw a pretty wide and ferociously rushing river that ended at its edge and then jumped down the steep canyon wall into a basin that lay at least five or six stories down.

The deafening sound generated by the waterfall and the mist that rose up from the basin as the water fell and hit the rocks at that bottom would have awed me, had it not been for what I thought was down there.

However, soon my attention was called away from my admiration of the place when I heard again the frantic barking of the dogs, who had all placed themselves right at the edge of the drop, looking down at something.

My heart immediately bottomed out, and as if I had been turned into a robot, I began to move towards the ledge, feeling the intense desire to see what those animals were seeing. However, when I finally made it to that drop, I was prevented from seeing anything because of the lack of light and the dense mist rising.

Regardless of my impediment, I was no idiot, and I knew that those dogs were not only trained to find needles in haystacks, but they could see in the dark better than we could. So, of course, I knew perfectly well that what they were pointing at was nothing more, and nothing less, than the body of my wife.

When that realization finally made it through my clogged brain, my legs lost all strength and I dropped to my knees, letting the tears and the despair I had held back in me, loose. I cried and almost howled like the canines beside me as pain took a hold of me and crushed me like a stone wall.

At that moment, and even without seeing the extent of the horror that awaited me, this crazy and thoughtless desire overcame me for a second to follow my beloved into whatever world she was going. That is how strong my pain became. But as the idea crossed my brain a strong voice from within me called me back from that edge and reminded me that there were other people, my kids, who needed me. So, I moved back from the edge of that fall and closed my eyes while praying incessantly for all this to be a bad dream.

All I wanted now was to wake up, discover this had been a really powerful nightmare, and find my beloved right next to me, in our hotel bed, nestled in my arms safe and happy.

But that would not be possible anymore, because this, this was reality. My reality was that Emily had taken her life and would therefore never be in my arms again. And that thought paralyzed me to the extent that I became powerless to move or do anything but cry.

Suddenly I felt the presence of someone else right next to me. At first, I did not look up to see who it was, but when I began to sense the emission of powerful waves, and of a soothing aura, I simply felt compelled to see who this person was – even though I had my suspicions about who it would be. And I was not disappointed. For standing but a few feet away from me, on my left, was Abraham.

As I stared at him, I realized that he was looking intently upon a specific point at the bottom of the drop, and what caught my attention about his strange behavior was that for a moment it seemed to me that his entire body, as well as his eyes, had begun to glow faintly. And then his hand extended in the direction in which the dogs had been pointing before and from his lips came a string of weird words in a language I had never heard before.

Driven by a strong impulse inside me and wishing to see what responses Abraham´s strange actions had caused, I went back towards the edge of the fall and felt my mouth drop open in shock. For where once before only darkness and mist lay to impede any possible attempts at reaching the bottom of that pit, now strange lights began to glow, marking the path that was needed to take.

I had been so overcome with awe by the sudden change both down in the basin, and around me, that I did not realize fast enough that with this renewed capacity to see I had also become enabled to locate the person we were here to rescue. So, I guess it was a good thing that the magical show of lights only lasted a few seconds, that my sight was again impeded by the mist and the darkness, that I had not had enough time to fully see what was down there, and that I had felt the approach of Abraham, who calling my attention, had extended a hand to help me up from where I was. I knew that if I had been able at that time to fully see, I would have probably lost what little composure I had left. It was evident to me that Abraham had known this as well.

I looked at him in both shock and awe, with all kinds of strange thoughts and conflicting emotions floating around in my mind about who he could be. However, like a child that follows a parent´s silent order without a doubt, I took his proffered hand and stood up. He then turned away and began to move toward the rest of the rescue team, while I simply stared at him in complete silence.

Once I was out of Abraham´s overpowering aura my brain reengaged with what was happening around me and at that moment I asked myself why I had taken that proffered hand without hesitation, or why I was not feeling freaked out about what I had just seen and sensed. But for some reason as time spent with Abraham increased, my trust in him grew stronger and stronger.

It was true, there were a lot of mysteries around the man, and normally I was not a very trusting person. However, somewhere deep in me, there was this voice that told me there was not a single person in this world who I could trust more, or rely on more, than him and it seemed that my entire being, except for my natural human mistrust, agreed with that voice.

"Jamie," I suddenly heard Abraham calling out to me, bringing me out of my useless wandering. "Come on, there is much to be done. Your children, more than anyone else, need you to be strong. Trust that all will be okay and let´s recover your wife."

At those words from Abraham my entire being, but especially my brain, was jumpstarted and as if a radio dial had been turned up, increasing the volume, I finally became aware of the ruckus taking place around us.

While the rescue team moved frantically about setting up the poles and first aid board that would bring what was left of my wife back up from that place of death, I became aware of the fact that I had totally forgotten my poor children, and I immediately turned to look for them.

I soon located them huddled together in fear, saw their blanched and devastated faces bathed in tears, and realized that they were now moving towards the edge of the drop like I had done. This forced me to spring into action. Going near that drop was in itself a huge danger but it was worse to think that they might try to move so that they could get a peek.

So, I hurriedly went to them, stopped them right before they could get to the edge, asked them to wait for the rescue team to do their job, and explained the situation as far and as well as I could. After all, I too had not yet seen the extent of the damage that had been caused.

Their young eyes, two sets of them, stared at me intently as if I were their last hope in this world, and then, when I had finished talking, they both snuggled against me and allowed themselves to cry openly, while their bodies shook from the cold and the fear they were feeling. My heart and soul went out to these two innocents who did not deserve to have to be living through such a horror, and I placed each of my arms around them to become their support.

Soon enough, we began to hear the pole system beginning to work and I knew I had to be prepared for what both my children and I were about to face. Because one thing was knowing what was to come in theory, and a very different was seeing it in the flesh.

When I heard the voices of the rescue members calling out to each other to coordinate the placement of the board where my wife lay probably dead and mangled beyond repair as it cleared the edge of the fall, I closed my eyes and began to take deep breaths, fearing what I would see. However, once more I felt the gentle touch of a hand, saw that it belonged to Abraham, and the soothing warmth and strength that I felt coming from him, gave me the final courage I needed.

I knelt in between my frightened kids, looked at each of their young faces, and then asked them to stay behind where we were while I went first to see what we were going to be up against.

They simply looked at me in teary silence and then both nodded their heads in acceptance of my decision. I gave each of them a kiss on their heads, and a squeeze of their hands for strength, and then began to move towards the place where my worst nightmare waited for me.

Now sure that my children would be protected for a little longer from the gruesome sight I knew was to come, and while I slowly walked towards the place where the board was, I couldn´t help but think that even if a team of experts had been here to prepare me for what I was about to face, the shock, the fear, the agony, and the helplessness I was about to experience would not have lessened even a bit.

Needless to say, the moment my eyes focused on what was in front of me, I lost all the strength in my legs, dropped to my knees, and began to dry-heave. Then, I released an animalistic roar. Because what had once been only a probability, a thought, something that could be denied had now become an absolute reality, one that tore open my chest.

For there stood, before my eyes, the unrecognizable version of what had once been my wife´s precious and beautiful body. It was now nothing more than a mangled and broken mass of bloated and bloodied flesh with skin that held colors that should have never been on a healthy person.

I began to cry like a small child, and the world around me began to cave in as what little hope I had left abandoned me and left me feeling as lifeless as my wife now was. What was I going to do now? What kind of life expected me without my beloved wife?

At that point, I heard gentle, almost timid, footsteps approaching, and knowing that they probably belonged to my children, I forced myself to get composed. I knew I could not hide the truth from them, and I also knew that now, more than ever, I needed to be strong for them. So, clearing my tears and putting my grief away, I turned to look at them, and right before they could see the gruesome scene, I stopped them and addressed them.

"I think you know what has happened and I know that you wish to see your mother. However, I do not think she would have wanted you to see her that way and I know you are not prepared for this. So, I ask that you please go back to the opening of the trail and wait for me there while we do what must be done. I promise I will let you see her, but not in the state she is in right now."

My children were so shocked, so aggrieved, that they simply nodded and moved to the back, and to my amazement, I saw two members of the rescue squad approaching them to keep them company. I felt grateful towards them and knowing that I did not have to worry about my kids, for now, I turned back towards the horror.

The remaining members of the team had been working around my wife´s body, trying to ascertain if there was any hope that she might still be alive. And while one of them was performing CPR procedures, another was bringing towards the board some special warming blankets in the hopes that these measures would bring my wife back to life.

However, as I looked on at these hard-working men, I could not help but feel the futility of their efforts and I wanted to just tell them to stop with this farse. My wife was dead, gone from us forever, and nothing anyone did would change that. However, I remained silent, allowing my feelings and emotions to run free, but in silence, so I would not affect the team´s efforts.

In the meantime, I found myself paying attention to the things that were being said by the rescuers who had gone down to the waterfall´s basin and brought my wife up. They had apparently found her lying against the sharp rocks that lined the basin with her body placed at an odd angle halfway into the water, and halfway over the rocks. They also said that despite the fact that she had open fractures all over, they had not seen a lot of blood, which seemed weird considering the extent of the wounds on her body. They finally mentioned that it was a wonder to them that the current, being as strong as it was at that point where Emily´s body had been, had not carried her away.

At that point, I decided not to listen to anything else that was being said and I tuned the men out. I also closed my eyes because I did not wish to continue seeing the awful sight before me. Instead, I turned towards the only thing I knew would help me keep myself sane, and so I found myself praying.

I prayed for my wife and her soul first; I asked God to forgive her and help her on her new journey. I prayed for my family and her family as well, and then I prayed for myself because I knew that only with God´s help would I be able to survive this. I finally thanked God because as much as this hurt, at least I had the body to bury, and therefore the chance to bring closure to my children, our family, and myself.

I was thus engaged inside myself, when suddenly I felt a soft breeze, warm and gentle, passing by me, surrounding me, and weirdly enough, going through me. It brought with it the soft and gentle echo of voices, voices that sounded to me as if they too were praying like I was, and it brought with it a sense of peace. In fact, as I thought about it, it almost felt like a mother´s gentle embrace. And I felt a little bit better, comforted.

I opened my eyes once more and found that the men had stopped their efforts now. They were simply standing there, staring at the dead body of my wife, looking at it as if they could not believe what they were seeing. For a fleeting moment, I thought that it probably was the first time they had had to try and save someone who had willingly sought to kill herself.

That sight, the helplessness in the eyes of these brave men, the sight of that inert body before them and me was the final nail on my strength.

Before I could do anything, or react in any other way, my entire body began to tremble and suddenly my legs gave out. Without even attempting to protect my body from the fall, I plummeted towards the ground of the valley. However, I never made contact with the floor, and when I was finally able to regain enough composure to focus, I realized that once more Abraham had come to my rescue.

Having probably seen my loss of control, it seemed he had rushed to prevent more harm from coming to me. And it was when I became aware of the contact between Abraham´s hand and my arm, that something within me clicked. I didn´t know how, and I could not understand it either, but something in me connected the feelings the earlier breeze had caused within me, the warm and soothing effect, with the sensations being generated by Abraham, and I knew that the two were connected in a very mysterious way. Once again, I couldn´t help but ask myself, who was Abraham?

After having asked myself that question, one that I would never voice out, for sure, I did not have much more time to ponder on my earlier thoughts because once he had made sure I was stable again, Abraham released me and then moved forward towards the body of my dead wife. Once he reached the place, I saw as he knelt beside her, took one of her mangled and probably cold-as-stone arms and brought the also mangled hand towards his face.

My body had reacted instinctively at the sight, and I moved forward as well, intent on stopping whatever this strange man was doing. That was until I came to witness something I had not expected, and that moved me to my very core.

As if he had been holding the most precious and fragile of flowers, or better yet, the body of a newborn baby, Abraham brought Emily´s arm and hand towards his lips, kissed the mottled skin, then brought her arm towards his heart and at the same time placed his free palm over Emily´s unmoving chest. He then inclined his head forward, in the direction of my wife´s head, and that movement allowed me to see a face that had been transformed both by an intense pain and a consuming emotion that seemed to wish to battle death itself. At least, that is what I sensed when I looked at the scene.

It almost looked like a father who refused to let his child go and was willing to fight until the end. How he could do so with someone who was already gone, I had no idea; but there it was, clear as day, at least for my heart and soul.

And then, to my astonishment, I heard as the breeze that had surrounded me earlier came again, surrounded both Emily and Abraham and then took the form of a very bright flame that began to float right above Emily´s heart.

Without any hesitation on his part, and evidently sure of what he has doing, Abraham took the flame in his palm, brought it to his mouth, kissed it, and then blew at it, making it fly like a small bird in the direction of my wife´s chest where it simply disappeared through her skin. After this was done, the still teary Abraham stood up, moved back from the board and then without a word to me, as if I had not witnessed that marvelous event, turned to the rest of the team, who seemed to have been oblivious to the exchange and asked them to start preparing for the return to the hotel.

Everyone began to move, and while two rescuers took hold of the dogs that had been brought to the search and then took point in the procession back, the other three took care of the board. At the same time my children silently moved towards me, each grabbed one of my hands and then began to pull me so we could follow after the board. Finally, I saw as Abraham took the tail-end position and kept his distance from us even though I very much wanted him to come closer and explain what I had just seen. However, when I finally managed to make eye-contact with him, he shook his head and I understood that this was not the time.

As we slowly descended towards the hotel, I became aware of a soft conversation happening behind us, and when I looked back, I realized that Abraham had taken out his phone and was probably contacting the hotel to let them know we were on our way with the recovered, and dead, guest. He also asked that the authorities please be contacted about this.

After this I simply turned my attention back to what now seemed to me was an endless trail, and the further we went down it, and the closer we got to the hotel, the more a sense of numbness and impotence began to get a hold on me. I just wanted this terrible day to be over and done with, I wanted to lay in what used to be our hotel bed and sleep, preferably forever, but I knew that a lot more was yet to come.

When we finally reached the hotel, we were immediately received and showered by the attentions from the top management, who offered us every single assistance and comfort they were capable of offering given the circumstances. I know that at some point I had been able to deliver an appropriate response of gratefulness, but I did not remember much else.

I knew people were talking to me and saying things, but my brain could not register anything beyond the fact that my wife was gone and would not be back. So, driven I guess by instinct, or something else, I really was not sure, I just nodded and tried to seem like I was aware of anything when in truth, I wasn´t. All I was truly interested in at that moment was keeping my eyes glued to my wife´s mangled body, because I feared that even that much would disappear, and keeping my hands entwined with those of my children.

Someone, I have no idea who, gently led all three of us towards a set of comfortable sofas, and extended warm drinks and blankets, which we all accepted gratefully. And while the hotel´s staff and the medical personnel went about their business, preparing what would be necessary to deal with my wife´s remains, my two kids leaned their heads against each of my shoulders and began to cry in earnest.

In an instinctual paternal reaction, I put away my drink immediately and opened up my blanket so I could hug the two of them with all my might and bring them as much comfort as I could. I kissed each of their heads and allowed my tears to freely flow.

We had been thus submerged in our pain and grief, when all of a sudden, the air was pierced by the shocking call of disbelief and also urgency from one of the paramedics who had been attending to my wife. "Call for an airlift asap, we need to get this woman to the hospital right now! I have no idea how this can be, and her vital signs are very weak, but they are there; she is still alive!"

As those words pierced my frozen brain and jumpstarted me, my heart gave a summersault in my chest. This was not possible; it simply was not. I had witnessed the absence of life in Emily, so I thought that this might be some sick joke. However, wishing those words to be true, wishing to believe that a miracle had been worked in response to my prayers, I immediately went to where my wife lay. My children, of course, refused to stay behind and followed me.

And there, right before our eyes, we saw as what had once been a totally motionless chest suddenly began to rise and fall - albeit slowly and with great difficulty. Not only that, but I noticed that Emily´s skin had reverted from its mottled, bruised, and wrinkled state and become much healthier, regaining a more normal color.

I immediately understood that we had been granted a miracle and been given hope for a second chance. And it was then that I finally understood the scene I had witnessed up in the valley. Abraham and whatever that breeze and flame had been, they had worked a miracle in favor of Emily and us.

"That man was right Dad, Abraham was right," Samantha suddenly exclaimed, her demeanor completely changed. "Everything happens for a reason and Mom is fighting to get back to us, I just know it."

I simply took Samantha in my arms and hugged her tightly as tears ran down my eyes and into her hair. Somehow, her words, more than the evidence before me, told me that it was true; Emily wanted to come back to us and when she did, all would be well.

"Dad, is Mom going to live?" I then heard Brian timidly asking and I turned to him to see him staring intently at his mother´s body. I took him in my arms as I had done with Samantha, and said, "Your sister is right; if we trust in God, in His Mercy, He will help bring your mother back to us and I believe that what we are seeing now proves that she truly wants to fight for her life. Will she win the battle? I cannot say, only God knows. But I believe with all my heart that your mother is trying to come back to us."

At that moment I remembered Abraham and all that he had done and suddenly driven by a really powerful desire to see him and thank him, I began to look around.

However, there was simply no sign of him anywhere. How that could be, when he had been the leader of the rescue squad, and he was easily the biggest man I had ever seen, was beyond me. But the bottom line was that Abraham was nowhere in sight. So, seeing how futile my efforts were to search for the man among the chaotic crowd I decided to go to the receptionist, and I asked if I could talk to him.

When I mentioned the name, the woman just stared at me for a second and then asked if I could repeat the information. I knew from the look in her eyes, and the gestures of her face, that I was either speaking in a foreign language to her, or she simply had no idea who Abraham was.

And things got worse for me, causing a chill to run down my spine, when the nice lady informed me that they had never had anyone by that name in their employ and that their rescue squad leader´s name was Peter. She then pointed me in the direction where this guy was, and when I found him, my heart stopped. He was the opposite of Abraham.

Overwhelmed by the meaning of this, I took several steps back and decided to place my questions on hold to ask Father Gregor later, because at that precise moment the airlift arrived, and my wife was soon loaded onto the helicopter.

I was approached then by a member of the medical team who asked me if I wanted to go with my wife, but I refused because I knew my children needed me at this time more than Emily. And so, the helicopter initiated its ascent without me.

As my kids and I prepared to follow in our car, we were intercepted by the hotel manager, who informed us that upper management had decided to take care of everything that we would need to make this time less difficult. This included transport to and from the hospital for us and any family members who would arrive to support us, room and board for anyone who would not stay in the hospital, and all expenses incurred in the care of my wife, and our comfort while being with her. He then pointed us towards an awaiting SUV that soon took off after the now moving helicopter.

In much less time than I would have expected, and feeling as if I had been living through an out-of-body experience, I soon found that we had not only arrived at our destination, but we had been deposited before a reception desk where a nice receptionist asked if we were the family members of Mrs. Summers who had just been brought in by helicopter.

Feeling completely dazed and confused I only managed to nod at the woman, who, understanding why the three of us looked as if we had been through hell and back, which we technically had, first asked our companion to take my kids towards the seats, and then helped me to fill out the necessary forms.

Once that was done with, she informed me that the doctors were now working on my wife, and that as soon as possible, someone would come out to let us know the state of things. Then she pointed me towards the waiting area where my children were now, each with a drink and a snack in hand, and I simply went to them and sat in between the two.

It took me a good time, a lot of deep breaths, and a prayer for strength before I found the energy, and the courage, to take out my phone and dial my family and Emily´s. To my parents I only said that Emily had had an accident and that she was in the hospital in critical condition. But when I told Stefan and Sophie, I immediately knew that my lie, regardless of how well I had delivered it, had not been bought. The two of them rapidly deciphered the truth and simply said that they would be with us as soon as it was possible.

Having thus finished the task of informing our respective families about what had happened, I dialed the number I knew even better than my own and soon I heard the one voice I had been wishing to hear for a very long while now. When Father Gregor greeted me kindly, I broke down like a child, and in tears, I told him the full truth.