Confession in 463

Confession In 463

“She is the true love of my life,” Michael said softly and slowly at 9:00 PM.

“I know, Pappy. The love you and Grandmother share is something the rest of us have aspired to our entire lives. Mother and Father are proud to say that their marriage has lasted for 40 years. Father will not leave because he is unwilling to split his estate with Mother. He drinks too much and spends too much time at work or the golf course. Mother is always busy with her bridge club, book club, or crosswords. When they are home, they are both on their laptops. David and I only managed to stay together for 15  years before his affair. Then he left me for that tramp. Joseph has lived with Angie for 13 years. They have two children but remain unmarried. Cicely left the US for France with some playboy, and her current location is unknown. My daughter is impossible to control. That is just Mother’s side; I do not even want to talk about Uncle Henry and Aunt Rebecca’s clans. Ha Ha, Their families are an even bigger mess than us.” Jocelyn laughed and squeezed the hand of her beloved maternal grandfather.

“I’m not talking about Evelyn,” Michael replied gently searching in Jocelyn’s eyes for love and compassion.

“Pappy, who the Hell could you possibly be talking about?” Jocelyn asked angrily. She pulled her hand away from her grandfather and stood up over his bed. “You and Grandmother have been married for 60 years. We know you cheated on her, but she took you back every time. You two have an indestructible love.” Jocelyn ended sweetly. ”Have you had too much morphine? That might explain these bizarre things you are saying”

The commotion caused a nurse at The Wellington Hospice Care Center to peek in the door of room 463. Michael had asked to receive care here for his final days. He told everyone that he didn’t want his family to have to see him so needy. The truth was that he did not trust Evelyn to be in charge of his care. He waved the nurse off.

“Her name is Antoinette Tremblay.” Michael replied somewhat dreamily. “I met her when I was stationed in Canada overseeing a computer surveillance program for the Army. I was 21 years old. I was 6’4’, weighed 175 lbs, was clumsy, and very smart. I had never fit in with any group in school. I joined the Army because they appreciated my intelligence. I could earn money to finish college. Some other computer nerds and I started going to a local bar every weekend to shoot pool. I saw this beautiful, tall, blonde girl that sat at a table and whispered to her two friends. They would watch us and giggle. One of my friends finally approached the girls, and they agreed to take a walk with us. The pairing seemed to happen naturally. I thought Antoinette was drawn to me because of our height. She was 5’11”, so most guys were shorter than her.”

“That is all really lovely, Pappy, but why would you hold a torch for this woman you have not seen in 60 years? All while being married to my Grandmother?” Jocelyn snapped, still frustrated that they were even having this conversation. She and Michael had always been very close. She did not want to change her view of her idol because of some stupid french woman.

“I have seen her. I have seen her many times.” Michael exclaimed joyfully. “The love we share is extraordinary. I do love your Grandmother, it is a long-term, comfortable, and reliable love. Antoinette is a hot, burning, fire in your heart kind of love. I need to tell someone the entire story before I die. You and I have always had a special bond. I hoped I could share my heart with you. Maybe I am wrong.”

“You are wrong. I do not want to hear your sordid story of the woman you kept on the side during your entire marriage to my Grandmother. I put you on a pedestal. You were my idol. Now you have ruined all of that. I have to go.” Jocelyn gathered up her jacket and pocketbook. “Good Night, Grandfather.”

“Jocelyn, are you leaving without a hug and kiss? Will  you be back tomorrow?”

“I can not touch you at this time, and I am unsure when I will return. I will call and let the nurses know when I will be back. I love you, but I am very, very confused.” Jocelyn left the room bawling.

Michael told his nurse that he did not want any more visitors that evening. Unless it was Jocelyn. If she called, he would gladly see her. If not, he wanted a double dose of morphine at 10:00 PM so he could sleep.

“This is no surprise,” Antoinette responded when Michael told her about the encounter with Jocelyn the previous day. Her beautiful French accent always made Michael relax. “She is the granddaughter of you, my love, and Evlyn. She does not wish to know that you love a woman and her grandmother. It is more difficult for her because her husband had an affair and left her for other woman. She dislikes this for her grandmother. It is instinct that she hates me. She especially does not want to believe that Evlyn knew about us. My sweet Michael, it is not important that your family know of me. I will come to see you when they are not here. I will attend the service that Evlyn plans. I will sit in the back, quietly suffer alone, and put flowers on your grave. Do not include me in your will, or any part of your estate. I do not need that. I just want to spend time with you. We know there is a limit to our time left together, so I want to spend every moment possible with you.”

“But darling, I want my family to know and welcome you, and our daughter, Alexandra. I have included you in my will, and I would rather it isn’t a complete surprise when it is executed.” Michael said. 

“Evlyn and Annette know of our love. That is enough for me.” Antoinette said. “I do not understand your insistence that your granddaughter accepts me. I do not want you to go through rejection at this time. Please, Michael, let this go. Enjoy the time you have left with your granddaughter.”

“No!”, Michael exclaimed strongly. “You and Alex deserve recognition as recipients of my estate. I want everyone to know that both of you are my family members. I have loved you and hidden you my entire life. Sweetheart, please let me have this. It is important to me.”

“What time will you have company today?” Antoinette asked sweetly, trying to change the subject. She visited in the morning and the “real family” members came in the afternoon and evenings. If Michael is alone at 10:00 PM, Antoinette would come back and hold him until he fell asleep. As awful as it sounded, she hoped that was when he would pass away. In his sleep, in her loving embrace.

“Evelyn is coming at 1:00. She loves any opportunity to make herself look good while torturing me. “ said Michael with a sigh. He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head, “Joseph has said he would stop by today around 3:00 or 4:00. He has said that many times and not come. Angie sometimes stops in with the girls. The visit with them is always much more pleasant than when Joseph does come. I think Joseph is ready for me to die. I wonder if telling him about you would make him feel closer to me. We all know that he has had many affairs during his time with Angie. That is why he won’t marry her. He thinks that if they are not married it is not cheating.” Michael’s handsome, chiseled face changed to a distant look of sadness., ”I don’t think Jocelyn will be here at 5:30 today.” Michael drifted away in the fog of depression about Jocelyn.

“You have always tell me that we are not an affair, now you are comparing us to Joseph?” Antoinette shouted angrily. She spoke so uncharacteristically loud that it shattered his fog.

Michael tried to respond, “Ant, darling. ”

Antoinette shoved her outstretched hand at him, and yelled, “NO! NO! NO! STOP! Do not interrupt me! How can you say this? I have been by your side for 40 years. I follow you to another country. I raise your daughter, mostly alone. I am here with you as you suffer from terminal cancer. I come to hold you as you go to sleep at night. I love you. How can you compare me to those whores?” Tears were pouring down her face.

This was not the first time they had been through this conversation. Michael spent most of the time looking at the diamond rings he had bought for her as she put her hands to her face. Michael didn’t even notice when she stopped yelling. That made her really angry.

“I am leaving. It's almost time for your real wife to arrive.” Antoinette stated flatly. She picked up her purse and was gone.

Michael thought, “Damn, I have sent two women storming out in less than 18  hours. That might be a new record. Well, not counting work.”  He laughed to himself. The nurse came in for her rounds.

“Wow, Mr. Svenson, you seem very happy considering what you have been doing to your ladies. I heard your daughter stomped out last night, just now your second wife left angrily. Now it’s almost time for your first wife, and she is always angry. You trying to run them all off?”  Gennie, his nurse giggled.

“Women are a lot of trouble, Gennie. Not you or my other female nurses, of course” Michael flashed her that gorgeous smile. “Let’s move that visitor’s chair closer to the door so they can exit quickly. Please give me a big dose of morphine or something so I will sleep through Evelyn’s visit. I do not want to hear her opinion on my argument with Jocelyn last night.”, Michael said in his smooth sexy voice. His granddaughter had told her that voice had helped him be such a successful attorney. His smooth presentation of the facts had enthralled many juries in his trial cases. 

The cafeteria staff brought Michael his lunch, then took it away untouched. All these medications killed his appetite and his sense of taste. As the pain medication wore off, the pain set in. Michael was in so much pain his body trembled all over. He had recovered following prostate cancer, vertebrae fusion, and even a gunshot wound. The pain that this cancer caused was unbearable. His cancer had started in his stomach with pain and digestive issues. His shit looked weird. When Michael couldn’t bear it any longer, he went to his Family Doctor. He did a complete physical and ran some blood work. When the FP received the results, he immediately referred Michael to an Oncologist. She ordered tons of scans, X-rays, and blood tests. When Michael met with her, she diagnosed it as Linitis Plastica, a rare stomach cancer. It is in Stage Four and has metastasized in the liver, lungs, and lymph nodes. This cancer is very difficult to treat. She started him on Zytiga, an oral chemotherapy, and a steroid.  He had flown to Chicago to get treatment from a Cancer Treatment Center. Nothing they did could slow the growth, so they deemed it incurable. That was a very short four months ago, and now he is in a “lie here/die here” center. 

“Good Afternoon, Darling.” Evelyn woke Michael when she glided into the room. “Why is my chair over here? You know we all like to sit close to you when we are here.” Evelyn slides the chair back to its usual place but doesn’t sit in it. “Our granddaughter called me last night. She was very upset. You told her about Antoinette. You didn’t get to the part about Alexandra and Josette? I filled that in for you. Now she hates you.” Evelyn managed to deliver that speech in a fake sweet, hissing voice.

“Evelyn, you are such a bitch. You knew that I wanted to tell her myself. I told Annette, and I wanted to tell Jocelyn.” Michael snarled back at her.

“Oh yeah, you did such a fabulous job telling Anette that she didn’t talk to you for ten years. Has she come to visit you here, or is she just waiting for you to die? At the reading of the will, they could all be surprised when you gave half of your estate to your whore’s family.” Evelyn smiled her evil smile.

“Don’t call her a whore, you bitch!” Michael yelled at her. 

“Now I see why the chair was near the door. Easy exit. Please hurry up and croak. I am getting tired of pretending I care.” Evelyn swept out of the door.

“Wow, Mr. Svenson, that wivey actually left smiling for the first time I have ever seen. You O. K.? Geenie asked entering the room. “Do you need another morphine dose? After that encounter, you deserve one.”

“Yes, please. I need some sleep.” Michael said quietly. “I don’t think I will have any more visitors today.”

“Of course, you will, sir,” Geenie said cheerily. Mr. Svenson seemed so down, and that was unusual for him. He was always very polite and kind. Even when he was in pain, he was never mean or impatient. She was shocked by all of the yelling coming from his room today. All the nurses had all anticipated a big blow-up at some point. The second wife visited in the mornings, fed him breakfast and lunch, and sometimes back after 10:00. The first wife came from 1:00-4:00 if she stayed that long. The granddaughter came from 5:30-9:30 and fed him supper. A man cannot rotate three women like that and keep them all happy. 

The schedule for nurses at this center was 12-hour shifts for three days on-four days off, then four days on-three days off. This crew was on their fourth day, and by the afternoon break at 3:00, they were pretty tired and silly.

Geenie was telling the other nurses in the break room about Mr. Svenson’s rough day. They all agreed when Anna said “I bet that was one gorgeous man. I can see how he has two wives.” Terry said, “I would gladly be the third!” Everyone laughed wildly. Different nurses chirped in. “He is 6’4”, obviously was muscular, tanned, oohh. Plus, don’t forget intelligent and rich. He was a very successful defense attorney. Have you seen the rocks on both of those wives? Is that wife number 1, who is an ex, and wife number 2, who is current?” “No”, Anna responded,” both are current.” Geenie shook her head up and down. “Wow. I can still be number three then”, Terry laughed.

The first shift ended at 6:00 PM, and Geenie checked on Michael as she prepared to leave. He put his hand to his lips and blew her a kiss when she said goodbye. He had never done that before. At first, she was flattered. Then as she got in her car and was driving away, she started to feel different. There was really no word for it; it was just different.

The cafeteria brought up Michael’s tray. Oddly enough, his granddaughter was not in his room. When the staff member asked if Michael wanted the table moved over to him, he answered, “No, thank you.” He seemed to go back to sleep. When Manny rounded his first evening round, he was surprised that Jocelyn wasn’t there. Antoinette didn’t come in that evening either. Manny checked Michael’s morphine, fluids, and vitals. Everything checked out fine, but Michael was unusually quiet. He cooperated with everything Manny asked for, but with a blank look and no words. He raised his hand in a goodbye gesture to Manny, then rolled over and went back to sleep.

The first stipulation of The Last Will and Testament of Michael Dwayne Svenson was that only two people were to attend. They were Evelyn Walters Svenson and Antoinette Fontaine Tremblay. The value of the estimated 40 million dollar estate was to be split an equal 50/50 between them. Evelyn actually received the entire estate. Antoinette learned that Michael had died the night she left him upset and alone. She returned to France and drowned herself in The Garonne River. Her daughter, Alexandra, thought she was still in the US and did not report her missing. Antoinette did not have any identification on her, so the body was found but never identified. Evelyn paid a steep price too. She was thrilled that Michael had died, but Jocelyn was not. Her last encounter with her grandfather haunted her. She started drinking heavily. Jocelyn was involved in a car wreck that killed her child, and another little girl. The injuries left Jocelyn in a wheelchair and caused an addiction to painkillers. Her mother and father took Jocelyn in their home. That gave them one more reason to blame each other for every failure. Annette stabbed Samuel to death during a heated argument. The court awarded Annette a life sentence at age 62. Evelyn had to move Jocelyn into her home and take responsibility for her. The parents of the little girl won a civil case against Jocelyn. Evelyn had to pay them fifty thousand dollars a year from the inheritance money. Henry, Rebecca, Joseph, and Cicely are angry that they didn’t get their share of the inheritance. They are suing Jocelyn and Evelyn for their portion.