Personal Narrative
- Martina Rivera -

Scene #1, In the waiting room of the hospital

I was admiring the electric blue blanket that was hugging my sister's body, it is the blanket my mother bought for us during a trip where my mother was mesmerized by the deep ocean "Electric blue is my favorite color because it is the color of the deep ocean that brings feelings of peacefulness and tranquility" She said. 

Why don't I feel the same peace and tranquility that my mother felt when she admired the color of the deep ocean? It is the same electric blue of the blanket. 

My mother was on the phone with my big brother, trying to calm him down because he was massively afraid and nervous. What an irony that my mother was the one that should be nervous.

Stop crying coward, everything will be fine, don't you have faith?

My mother have to left to get prepared for the brain tumor surgery…. 

Please God protect my mother! she is in your hands. 

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Scene #2, Immigrant issues

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The nurses called me and my sister to have the same conversation once again. Communication was an issue for us because we didn't know enough English to maintain a conversation that involved medical terms. 

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Through a translator, they told us the same thing that we heard the last couple of days, the aftermath of a brain tumor surgery.

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She may start to have seizures.

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The probabilities for her to lose the ability to walk or talk, lose her memory and/or vision are very high.

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Your mother may not wake up the same day. She may take 2 or 3 days because of the magnitude of the surgery.

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I remembered that my mother during the bad situations as an immigrant we have experienced she always told me to never lose my faith...

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Never lose your faith

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Scene #3, emergency

One of the nurses came back to the waiting room. The nurse was trying to contact the translator services but they put her on hold. After waiting the longest 7 minutes of my life, the translator informed me and my sister that my mother's surgery process was stopped due to an emergency that had to be attended.

I felt the worst mix of feelings, I was afraid...

We should not feel so awful because we have the strongest and most optimistic mother; her faith is so strong that it will help her get ahead.

Everything would be ok.

I will never lose my faith.

After 1 hour and 40 minutes they continue with my mother’s surgery. 

Scene #4, Rise up.

Martina, Adela, Martina, Adela, Martin...

We waited almost 10 hours until the surgery was over. My sister and I went to the room where they had my mother. My mother's head had swelled so much that I couldn't recognize her. My mother woke up and talked after the surgery, surprising the hospital staff. Shortly after she fell asleep due to the amount of anesthesia in her body. 

Scene #5, Do you believe in miracles?

My mother woke up and talked after the surgery. She then woke up the next day after the surgery, and on that same day, she was standing on her feet walking. The third day, I asked her 50 questions to test her memory and she answered all of them accurately. On the fourth day, all the doctors were in the hospital once again, but this time they could not believe how my mother was healing so quickly and that the surgery did not affect her like they thought it would. That same day my mother was sent home because there was no need to be in the hospital. 

Thanks God! I would never hesitate, I will never lose my faith.

All the nurses and doctors impressed by my mother’s case were applauding her on our way out of the hospital.