Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
It was on this very lawn that Judi and I were married, and what a wonderful day it was too.
It was the middle of winter, yet this particular day was almost hot, not a cloud in the sky,
as I recall. Music played from the loud speakers which had been mounted in these very
trees I describe; I believe they were elms. There were garlands and arrangements of flowers
everywhere; servants hurried back and forth tending to the guests and bringing out plate
loads of hot food straight from the kitchen. It seemed everyone we knew was there, even
my sweet mom and dad, up from their farm six hundred miles away, and aunts and uncles
I hadn't seen in such a long time. It was a day to remember.
Judi had picked up a lot of her mother's French cuisine talents and made fabulous meals
now for our friends in Cape Town. She had managed to convince me to sell the motorcycle
as it was dangerous and impractical. Especially now that she was pregnant! It sounds crazy,
but we would hare around those winding dangerous roads around the Cape with her just a
few months pregnant, hanging on to me for dear life, on the back. I agreed and bought a
little truck, which was a lot safer and could be used in conjunction with Déjà vu, carrying
things about that a normal car could not do. Judi bought herself a little car to get to work
and to run about in, and suddenly we were a two car family!
Disaster struck one afternoon, when I came home from work unexpectedly early, and found
Judi's car parked in the driveway. It was odd that she was home so early. I no sooner went
into the house when I heard moaning coming from our bedroom. I rushed in and found my
beloved wife and soon to be mother lying awkwardly across our bed. She was moaning in-
coherently and was as white as I had ever seen her. “Doctor, get a doctor....” she managed
to whisper. I raced next door to our neighbor, who luckily was a doctor, and found his wife
there instead. “Please, where is the doctor? We have an emergency!” I shouted. The doctor
was away on another call, I was told. I gave her our phone number as she bid and raced
back to Judi. Just then the phone rang ,and when I described the symptoms to the doctor, he
asked if she was pregnant. With my answer, he immediately told me to call an ambulance
and get her to Groote Schuur Hospital at once. He would be there himself as soon as pos-
sible.
Within minutes of my calling the emergency operator, I heard the wail of a siren and soon,
with the aid of a few burly medical workers, we had Judi strapped in the back of the ambu-
lance, an oxygen mask on her ashen silent face, and we were racing noisily through town,
down the freeway to the hospital, sirens screaming!
Our doctor must have phoned through to the ER room and warned them that she was arriv-
ing soon and that he suspected it was a burst fallopian tube. Judi had slipped into a coma
at this point, and I was beside myself with fear. I truly thought she was going to die, my
beloved Judels. The surgeon came over to me and had me sign a document allowing him
to operate as soon as possible. “She will die in ten minutes if we don't operate!” I signed
