Quinnell Freeman watched his mother die from a lethal injection of heroine that the biggest drug lord in Jackson, Mississippi supplied her. Crushed and grieving from her death. And left with a heavy burden of his teenage sister to care for, so he do...
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Forty-five minutes later, Zyra and I found ourselves sitting in the waiting room of the intensive care unit of Christian Memorial Hospital in the north part of Jackson, Mississippi. The doctor didn't talk further into why my momma was in the hospital, but it had to be bad if she's in this part of the hospital.
Zyra laid her head on my shoulder, "I hope momma doing ok, I really want to see her, I don't care what kind of shape she is in." she said before exhaling loudly. I patted her leg before putting my arm behind her chair, bringing her into my warm embrace. "Momma lived this long; she's a fighter," I said, rubbing her shoulder.
"Quinn, what was momma like before this happened before daddy died," Zyra asked me softly. I sighed and looked up at the ceiling,"Well, she was the best cook in the house hands down, she always tried to teach dad how to cook certain foods, but it always ended up in smoke. She had the best laugh all her pearly whites would show when she is truly happy. There is rare time you would see her mad, but when it happened, it was a scary sight; it only really happens when her buttons are pushed." I looked down and saw her contagious, smiling.
I told her more funny and crazy stories as we waited for the doctor to come to talk to us. Just then, the doctor appeared into the waiting room, and she and I made eye contact, then waved me over. I kissed Zyra's forehead and pat her leg again. "Stay here, ma. Let me go see what the doctor wants to talk about." I whispered, rising up along with the nervous.
The waiting room had about a handful of other people inside; out of the few, some were fast asleep, and others were looking around as nosey as news reporters. When I got to the hallway, the doctor extended her hand, and I shook it reluctantly. Our eyes meet, and she gave me a look that told me everything that I needed to know.
She took a deep breath and slowly blew it out. "Well. These things are never easy to tell a family member. So I am going to get straight to the point," the light-skinned middle age woman said with the white hospital coat on and her navy-blue scrubs.
I swallowed. "Alright, just give it straight to me; no sugar coating." I looked her in the eyes.
She broke our eye contact and looked at the wall behind me. "I'm sorry to tell you that your mother passed thirty minutes ago, after falling into cardiac arrest."
The world around seemed to have to stop, and suddenly I had been thrown into hell. Sweat and tears have mixed into together, my own heart started skipping beats to where I couldn't breathe regularly. I took two huge steps back and bumped into the wall. "No, you have the wrong person, can't be my momma. She is a fighter; she wouldn't leave this earth without a fight." Shaking my head in disbelief.
"Are you staying she had a heart attack?" Looking back up at her. The doctor stepped forward, placing her small gentle hands on my shoulder. "Yes, the cause was a heavy amount of heroine that I have ever seen in my life and her not eating properly. I am so sorry for your loss. We're going need for you to claim the body and make further arrangements."
