Memoir of a runaway girl - A true story!
This was a total surprise for Remo as well, since we had given up on this idea. I initially wanted my children two years apart, and here it was five years later.
I was fretting about telling my family that I was going to have their second grandchild for a variety of reasons. They didn’t approve of my marriage in the beginning. They thought I had my first child too early as well. They also knew that Remo and I experienced some marital issues too. My fretting turned out to be unwarranted. The news of my second pregnancy was received well by everyone.
May 13th, 1988 arrived and I was about two months away from delivering my second child. I had been experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions for the previous couple of months. So these contractions were not out of the ordinary. But my friend, Mary was overly concerned on that one particular day. She made me go to the hospital.
I spent the entire night hooked up to a monitor and having my blood pressure taken every hour. At about six in the morning the doctor walked in, tore off the sheets of paper from the machine and walked away with results. He walked back into the room, sat down and asked me to call Remo to come to the hospital. I knew by the expression on his face that he was very concerned and this was not going to be good news.
Remo arrived at 7:30 in the morning and the doctor proceeded to tell us what he found in the reports. Apparently, the contractions were cutting off the air supply to my unborn child. I would need an emergency C-Section and fast. I remember them wheeling me down to the operating room.
While I lied on a stretcher waiting, my doctor came over to have me sign some papers. Out of fear I asked a question that I probably shouldn’t have while under duress. “I do not want anymore children, I can not do this a third time. What do I need to do, to get you to clip me up while you have me in the operating room?”
It was simply a matter of signing a few more papers and then it was done.
I woke up in recovery groggy, but fully aware that I just had a baby. It did not even occur to me to ask if everything was okay, as I just assumed it was. That was when Remo was told what I did before going into the ER. Well he blew a gasket and was threatening to sue the doctor. After a talk to calm him down, I lied and said that this was not something that would be isolated and that I felt it would be best not to chance ever losig a baby. I just couldn't do this again. He was still upset but Remo finall calmed down when he got to meet his newborn son.
There was my new precious baby boy. He was premature and a tad small, but nonetheless, he was alive, healthy and gorgeous. After 7 days I finally said I wanted to go home, which was two days earlier then they wanted to release me. I just wanted to be home with my children. My mom was staying with us again to help me out. This was quite helpful since I was full of staples from the surgery. She stayed for 2 weeks and then headed back to Lethbridge..
Now, my older son was in Grade 1 and I decided that after one year, I was going to bite the bullet and go back to work. That’s exactly what I did. I became a department manager at a large department store.
This opened my eyes to an entirely new world. I had been shut off from life outside our little apartment and its four walls. But now, I was meeting people again, I was getting looks from other men, and I found out about computer bulletin board systems (BBS’) to be exact.
I explained to my husband that I wanted a computer. He was totally against having one in the house. So what did I do? I got myself a dumb terminal from the local phone company and brought it home. Now I was all set to get on the BBSes and I had tons of fun with it. Guys were flirting with me, I found myself flirting back at them. I found that the more I used it, the more I realized how unhappy in my marriage. I wanted more, I wanted someone to love me for me, not for what I did for them.
I had already expressed to Remo that I was wanting out of the marriage, but his response was always, “Yeah right, you’re not leaving”.
I remember when Remo’s mother would call me on a daily basis. The calls went the same way every time. She’d ask to speak to Remo or the kids. She’d never even exchange small pleasantries with me. Never asking how I was doing, or making small talk with me. I’ve received better cordial greetings from strangers on the street. This one particular day, I decided that I had enough of her phone games. I was going to confront her.
His mother asked “Is Remo home?”
I answered, “No Maria, he is not home, he is a work”
She went on to ask, “Oh, how are Michael and Matthew?”
This is when I made my decision to tell her how I felt about her daily calls.
I sarcastically said, “They are fine Maria, the same today as they were yesterday. Maria, I want to know why you call every day, asking for Remo, asking about the kids. You never say hello to me or ask how I am doing. I find this very rude and I know what you’re doing”.
She replied. “I don’t know what you are saying? I like to know the kids are okay and I ask if Remo is home because I would like to talk to him”.
I knew she was lying, so I responded, “Ok, listen, I know you do not like me and I know you know I do not like you. So why play these phone games with me all the time. You only call daily because you know it bothers me.”
She then answered sheepishly, “No Abernathy, I no hate you.”
Getting aggitated by her not being honest with me I said, “Maria, you have hated me since the very first day you met me and that is fine, I am no fan of yours by any means but this has to stop. So this is what I am going to do. I will never stop you from seeing your son and grandsons, but I will not come to your home anymore and I do not want you in my home anymore. Let’s finish this today please.”
She paused while she was trying to think of something to say. But in the end, she agreed that maybe it was better that we stay away from each other. We hung up the phone and she turns around and immediately called Remo at work and told him what transpired between us, of course with her own exaggerated version of what transpired.
Thank you all for your continued support with my first novel!
Chapter 3 - Part 8 will be posted tomorrow.
For those who missed the beginning, you can read it here:
https://steemit.com/writing/@feline1991/a-steemit-original-a-lifetime-of-seeking-happiness-part-1