While Faith is spending time with Giancarlo, I call my parents and ask them to come down. When they get here, I tell them everything.
“Are you sure there’s nothing they can do for her?” my mamá asks as she sniffles.
“We can pay for her treatment if that’s what’s holding things up.” My papà frowns.
Jérôme said there’s nothing they can do. Her injuries are too much and she doesn’t want to take the chance on surgery. She wants to spend her time with Giancarlo and me. I told her I wanted you both to meet her. She’s afraid you’ll hate her. But I told her that’s not going to happen.” I can’t help the tears that fall. My mamá hugs me and my papà wraps his massive arms around us both.
“Let’s go and meet our grandson and his mamá.”
We all walk into the room. I can hear my mamá sniffling still.
“Faith, Giancarlo, this is my mamá and papà. Rosaura and Leonardo.”
“You is weally big,” Giancarlo says to my papà.
“You’re beautiful,” my mamá says to Faith as she goes over and hugs her gently.
Faith bursts into tears. Giancarlo squishes closer to her as he hugs her.
“Don’t cwy, Mama. I wuv you,” he says as he starts to cry.
“Mama’s okay,” she says to him, trying to put on a brave face. “Remember how I said Gianluca is your papà?”
Giancarlo nods.
“Well this is your grandma and grandpa.” She looks at them. “I don’t know what you’d like him to call you.”
“‘Nonno’ is grandpa in Italian. And ‘abuela’ is grandma in Spanish,” my mamá says to her.
“Can you remember that, Carlo?”
He looks at all of us.
“Papá. Nonno. Abuewa,” he says as he sniffles and holds tight to Faith.
I grab tissues for everyone because none of us can stop the tears that are coming. After a few hours, Faith’s starting to slur her speech and she looks like she’s in more pain. I call Jérôme and Giovanna in. The look on Jérôme’s face is telling us that it’s getting closer. Faith holds Giancarlo tightly.
“Mama loves you so much. Don’t ever forget that. I need you to be a good boy for your papà. You listen to him just like you listened to Mama. Can you do that for me?”
“Yes, Mama.”
“I need you to go with your Zia Gia. She’s going to help you too.”
“But I dun wanna weave you. Pease.”
“Maybe Zia will get you some ice cream. That will be fun, right?”
Giancarlo scrunches up his little face and frowns.
“I come wight back and bwing Mama ice cweam.”
Faith nods and smiles at him. She hugs him tightly one more time.
“I love you.” She waves to him as Giovanna and my parents take him out of the room.
“I can give you more morphine to help with the pain, if you want,” Jérôme says softly to her.
“Yes, please. I wish I had made better decisions,” she says as more tears fall.
