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The doctor finally came and woke Imogene at 4 in the morning. We have been taking turns taking a nap in the large chair in the chemo room while Barbara was down the hallway struggling to keep going.

"Wait a minute!" Imogene said, before returning to the chemo room and motioning for me to come with her. "You're family too!", she said.

We walked down the hallway, around the corner and pressed the large button to open the doors for the operating room suites. We stood there until Barbara's surgeon greeted us, him firmly shaking my hand and saying "it's great to see you again, but I wish the circumstances were different, " before turning to embrace the large woman.

"We need to talk," he said, "come down to my office and I'll explain what's going on."

We walked down a hall and as the doctor opened his door, we allowed Imogene in first, followed by me. We sat down in chairs facing his desk.

"We've come to the part of the roadway that I had hoped that I would have retired before getting here. Barbara is holding on, but she is barely holding on. We have done as much as we could do, but the simple fact of life is that her heart is not working and we have had to start it up three times now. And that," he said looking at me, "is really two times more than what she has wrote down for us to do for her."

I looked at the medical doctor and then at Imogene, who produced some tissues and was wiping her face.

"What are you saying?" I asked.

"I know you're going to ask me how much time does she have. The truth is," the doctor stated, looking at Imogene and then at me, "we don't know. Your..."

"...Sweetheart", I said, filling in the relationship title.

"Your sweetheart is in there fighting for everything she's got to stay alive. She has this idea that she wants to see two more sunrises before she leaves us. She knows she's dying...she's known this for about a week but she wanted to keep this from you, Mike. You have been so very important in her life despite your work that she did not want you to see her in such a situation."

I looked down at the carpeting from my seat.

"Can we see her?" Imogene asked. I raised my head back to meet everyone else's head.

"Yes, of course you can," the doctor spoke. "Right now she's sleeping but she knows that breakfast will be ready in a hour or so and she'll be hungry then. I'll call one of the floor nurses to take you to see her."

The doctor picked up the phone beside his chair and punched some buttons. "Can you have a floor nurse to come to my office please? Thank you." The doctor hung up the phone.

Imogene looked at me and then at the doctor and said "I know you...and everyone else here...have been doing all they could for my sister. Thank you all so very much..." We both got up and shook the doctor's hand. We then waited for the nurse to knock on the door and then come in. The doctor instructed to please take them to see Miss Barbara.

"Imogene, Mike will be along in a minute," the doctor spoke. The nurse and Imogene went onward and closed the door behind them.

"First, I want to confirm that Barbara's care has been picked up by you and the hospital. Is that right?"

"It is," I said, returning to the seat I was sitting at. "Any problems with that?"

"No. We are just so used to people paying via insurance. You're a writer, is that correct?"

"I am. My recent book has been advanced and I used that money along with money Barbie....Barbara and I have saved to pay for her care."

"Do you know what her funeral plans are?"

"We both are to be buried together on Axtel Mountain, overseeing the valley where she...we...live. Imogene is the closest relative and will get all of her things which she did not assign to a child...or to me. Her parents have passed on, as mine have. Her children will come to the funeral, but only out of respect. She wrote all of this down in a will she kept at the bank in town."

"The medical instructions, which I have already broken twice by reviving Miss Barbara, also states that she did not want you to be there when she passes. Something about remembering her as she was living, and not doting on her death or something like that. However, I am going to let you see her before she passes on..."

"Please don't, doctor."

The medical professional looked at me. I repeated my statement.

"Don't you want to see her one last time?"

"I did. I saw her smile at me when I let her go to have her cath cleaned and flushed. I saw her smile when her sister and her held each other tight."

I started to tear up.

"Barbie always had my best interests in mind. She gave me hell when I deserved it, and loved me as if I God's gift to manhood when she sensed I needed it. I could not have asked for a better mate, a better friend, a better object of my love and affection. I could have found someone younger, someone with more of a body, someone..." I stopped and wiped my face with my arm.

"She gave me pieces of her heart which is why she's down there trying to live with the pieces she's got left. Let her go this time, Doc. I'll see her again...I am sure of it." I buried my face with my hands and cried silently.

The doctor walked around, touched my shoulder and nodded slightly. "Just wanted to let you know; but it seemed that you two already talked through this a while back... Let me see how Imogene is doing. You can stay here if you like for a bit."

The doctor was gone for about 20 minutes while I composed my body and wiped my face with my arms. I then left his office, went to a men's room, and rinsed my face in the sink, followed by wiping it with some paper towels.

I walked back out and sat down in the operating waiting room area. I waited through what I believe was breakfast time

Imogene came and found me. She pulled my body upward from the chair, held me and started crying.

"Home", she cried, "that's all she said to me, "Home".

I held her as tight as I could as I also cried.