A Mother's Love.... Endures

Susan Torres and Baby Peter

A mother's love for her child is beyond words. Watching "The Passion of the Christ" last year, one of the most poignant scenes was Mary watching the child Jesus, falling...and watching the adult child Jesus...falling. You know her pain, as a mother. And the anguish she felt was VERY poignant when Mary stood and watched as they crucified her Son.

It has been published in interviews that Maia Morgenstern, the Romanian actress who played Mary, the Mother of Jesus in the movie, was able to draw from her own Jewish background, and make suggestions to Mel Gibson about how she could play scenes. One shows her anguish near the end of the film when she grabs handfuls of gravel.....stands...and opens her hands slowly, allowing it to fall in bits to the ground. It was powerful.

I sat by my only son as I watched that film, and knew that I did not have the courage that was being shown on the screen in that film.

Nightly, nearly, I watch as another anguished mother tries to find her daughter in Aruba, and I see the strain in her face as time goes by. I have watched as many mothers and fathers have searched for missing children on news....

As a nurse, I have often seen mothers, young and not so young, do what ever it takes to bring forth a healthy baby. Most often, that means bedrest for weeks on end. Hard, yes, but not the worst one can envision for such a reward. Just a very long, boring time.

EVERY OB Doctor and Nurse knows that we deal with not one, but TWO patients everytime a pregnant woman comes in. Two patients. And every mother knows that she is not alone as she feels that child inside moving...

Then you read of women, again, young and not so young who have been told that they must make life and death decisions about saving their own life by aborting their child and beginning treatment for their newly diagnosed cancer/heart condition/etc immediately.... or choosing to wait until their child is born.

I have known a few who were given this choice. None opted to abort.

I remember Kim, who had such complications during her pregnancy; as she left her room for surgery, I said (as her nurse...) "I will pray!"... There was bedrest, after, but her baby was ok. She was told to never have another child, but she chose to find another MD who could help her to have more than just that one baby that she'd had.

There was Bev who worked with us, and had Lupus, yet had a slew of boys.

There was Wendy, who I wrote about before, and oh, so many others.
( http://wicatholicmusings.blogspot.com/2005/06/mothers-love-is-never-ending.html )


Now, there is Susan, whose entire family has said that she would want them to fight for the life of her child even though she is now on REAL life support of a respirator after a melanoma tumor began to bleed into her brain unexpectedly, causing brain death. Not brain damage. No hope for her to breathe on her own, ever.

Her brother in law has said that in that ICU room, Susan is the strongest one there. Susan has survived now, long enough that her child may survive if they have to end the pregnancy. And I believe that she is fighting to go on as long as she can ... as long as her heart is beating... for her child.

God bless both Susan and Jason Torres, and their son, Peter, and their unborn child, whose kick was felt by Dad about June 21.