Chapter Twenty

I literally camped out at the hospital for a few days while I waited to see whether or not my mother was going to be okay.  When Hap told me that she’d been mauled, he either failed to tell me the extend of her injuries or I failed to comprehend them.  When I finally got to see them, I almost fainted.

Not only had one side of her face been ripped up to the point she looked like Mrs. Frankenstein, the left side of her torso had so many stitches, it reminded me of a patchwork handbag that I once owned.  Even though she was beautiful, I’d never known my mother to be shallow about her looks, but this would be the test of things.  Her looks were destroyed. Even if the scars did fade - like the hospital staff kept assuring me they would – the meat of her flesh had been damaged.  She’d never look the same again.

It was her third day in the hospital when she finally woke up and spoke to me.  Hap happened to have stopped in to check on her and wa