by Harry Kraus
“Maybe you don’t get it. Wally can’t walk anymore. He can barely swallow. His arms and legs swim over the sheets like a drowning man. He can’t get to the bathroom, so he pees in his diaper. The constant movements keep him in a stinky sweat. I get nauseated just going in the room.” She hesitated, locking her eyes on Ginny’s. “And all I can see is me in his place.”
“I know, Claire. It must be horrible.”
“It’s worse than that. I hope somebody puts me out of my misery long before I look like my father.”
Ginny nodded with understanding and spent a moment with her hands folded in her lap before speaking. “May I make a suggestion?”
Claire tilted her head. “Find a silver lining.”
“Am I that predictable?” Ginny laughed.
She grinned. “Maybe.”
“Tap some of that Claire McCall optimism. Make every visit with your father a reminder to live today to the fullest, not an excuse to dread the future.”
The thought resonated with her. She wanted to do that, longed to do it, in fact. She and her father had been too far down a healing road to let her own fear spoil her final months with Wally.
She looked up at Ginny. “It’s a plan.”
Claire hugged her counselor and walked down the hall wondering how all the talk was supposed to equip her for the future.
I’m engaged to marry John Cerelli. I should be delirious with joy. So why do I doubt I’ll ever walk the aisle for him?
Could I Have This Dance?
Copyright © 2002 by Harry L. Kraus
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EPub Edition © FEBRUARY 2011 ISBN: 978-0-310-86151-5
Requests for information should be addressed to:
Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kraus, Harry Lee, 1960-.
Could I have this dance? / by Harry Lee Kraus.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-10: 0-310-24089-1 (Softcover)
ISBN-13: 978-0-310-24089-1 (Softcover)
1. Women physicians — Fiction. 2. Interns (Medicine)–Fiction. 3. Huntington’s chorea-Fiction. 4. Fathers and daughters-Fiction. 5. Virginia-Fiction. I. Title. PS3561.R2875
C68 2001
813’.54-dc21 2001006891
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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.
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