Gabe's Alive

Gabe’s Mom Writes About Getting the News:

On Monday, I was in Dallas, Texas visiting with friends while working on a writing project. Only a few weeks until I can meet Gabe in California, where we are both super-excited about setting him with with a place to live, a job and his first classes at Santa Rosa Junior College.

Just after noon, my mobile phone rings and when I answer, a woman says, “Hello. My name is Leslie and I’m calling from Morristown Memorial Hospital in Morristown, New Jersey. Is Gabriel your son?”

Of course my heart began pounding immediately, and I said, “Yes – I’m his mom. Is he OK?”

“He’s been in a serious accident. You should come here as soon as you can.”

I tried not to panic. I wrote down the phone number for the hospital, and said goodbye. I told my friend David, also working from home that day, that I needed to get ready to travel. I was shaking a bit and looking around wondering what to do first, how to get moving. I begged him – “Will you find a ticket for me right away? I’ll pack some stuff.”

So David tried changing my existing ticket, but there were no flights available until the next day. “Let me call the hospital for you and see, you know, if he’s really that bad off. Maybe he’ll be OK for 10 hours or so while you travel.”

So he phoned Leslie, and she started to tell him that I really needed to come right away. And then David put me on the phone again, and Leslie said, “Your son is remarkably strong and amazingly lucky. He does not have a head injury that we can see, his spine seems to be intact. But I want you to know that his legs have been very severely injured.”

I sobbed and gasped and she said, “I’m sorry to have to tell you this. We usually wait until the family is in the hospital, but you are wanting to know something more.”

I said, thru my convulsing breaths, “No, you have to tell me. It’s OK, you must tell me.”

“He had to be airlifted to the trauma center. He is going into surgery now,” she said,”and it would be great if you could be here as soon as possible.”

“I’ll be on the next plane.”

And I was. I was able to catch a direct flight to Newark by 4pm. Words cannot describe my state during the flight. My mind was filled with images of my beautiful boy. We’d just enjoyed a lovely Easter together, and I was just getting used to him being SO tall and strong and gorgeous. He could pull me into his arms and hug me like a real man! My little boy! What has happened to his legs? And what will happen to his spirit?

I cried openly without even realizing it, without even thinking about anyone’s view of me and my state.

I arrived at Newark around 8:30pm, and had the extreme good fortune to be met at the airport by Tom, the father of Gabe’s best friend, Evan.

While I was filled with fear and the longing to just GET THERE, I also tried to calm myself and resolve to be as positive and creative as I can possibly be now thru all that will come, for Gabe.