Hope
Lisa Okazaki 5Re
“Your mother has malaria.” Tom Jones said to Alyssa, his sixth grade daughter.
“What…why?” Alyssa couldn’t finish her sentence.
“You should be careful too…your mom’s in the hospital.”
That moment, that scene, kept playing in Alyssa’s head as if it was a tape recorder. With tearful eyes she touched her mom’s blanket. Last week, her mom had suddenly fainted. They took her to the hospital and she took many tests to find out what was wrong. A week before, Alyssa’s family had gone to her grandparents house, in the neighboring city, in Cambodia. It wasn’t exactly a house. It was big, and comfortable, but loud {especially on rainy days}, shack. A long wide towel hung from the tin roof, as a door. Many elders lived in these homes, the way they used to in the olden days. It was different from Alyssa’s house, which is the modern kind. Whenever they went there, Alyssa got many bug bites, and her dad thinks that Hannah, Alyssa’s mom, got malaria from being bitten by a mosquito while she was there.
Why am I thinking about this?! Don’t think about it! You’ll feel worse, Alyssa thought. She turned on the TV, but her feelings didn’t budge. She flipped through the channels and landed on the NEWS.
“A very scary disease, that comes from mosquitoes, Malaria, is spreading throughout Cambodia. Now, over 1,000 people have it and over 150 people are dying from it,” the news reporter said.
Wait…did she just say dying? DYING?! Alyssa screamed in her head. The news reporter paused for a second, then started to talk.
“If you have a fever, you feel dizzy, your muscles ache, you have pain, you can’t walk, or any other bad conditions, go straight to the hospital.”
Alyssa went straight to bed. She had never known her mom was fighting with something so dangerous.
The next day, Alyssa went to visit her mom in hospital. She stopped to get some flowers and presents, then went to her mom’s room. It was a special room, with only one bed, a TV, a table with chairs, and a sofa. Alyssa was standing in front of the room, when a nurse came by and she said,
“Oh, she’s in a special room because she’s terribly sick. Wait…is she your mom?”
“Um…yeah”
“If you’re going in, pull your hair up and wash your hands thoroughly. Don’t forget to wash your hands when you leave the room too,” Then the nurse rushed off down the hall. Alyssa pulled her hair up with a bow, washed her ands, and went in. Her mom was sleeping with a breathing mask on, and an intravenous drip in her arm. Alyssa slowly put the presents next to her mom’s bed and left a note. She stayed till 8:00 p.m. but her mom kept sleeping. She visited her after school every day for one week. When Alyssa came home from those visits, she would cry herself to sleep. But finally on Thursday, a week after she first visited the hospital her her mom’s eyes slowly opened. It was the same kind eyes Alyssa knew she’d had.
“Mom…” Alyssa cried.
“Alyssa…be careful…don’t…get…it…I…miss…you…and…your…father…I love you both…. don’t give up…hope…”
Alyssa’s mom stumbled on the words. They were the last words she said. One month later, at five in the evening, Alyssa’s mom’s heart stopped beating. Beep…beep…beep. The monitor next to her rang. She smiled until her soul flew away. Alyssa saw doctors, nurses everyone come into the room in a rush…to take Alyssa’s mom to the surgery room, away from Alyssa. After a few hours, the doctor came with a sad face.
“We’re sorry…there was nothing we could do about it.”
Alyssa’s dad cried all night. But Alyssa didn’t. She felt the words inside her…don’t give up. Hope.
Alyssa made a decision.
I’m helping kids and people suffering from Malaria. I’m giving them hope, like the way mom gave me.
All through the month Alyssa studied malaria. She went to the library and read books, went on the internet to learn more, donated money for nets that would block mosquitoes from biting people while they slept, gave out flyers to ask people to donate money, visited people who had malaria and made them laugh, encouraged them to keep fighting malaria, and gave them hope. She did many many things to stop the spreading. After two months she had donated over 300 dollars for the nets. She thanked many people for their help. In the school newspaper in big bold letters read, “Help cure malaria! Stop the spreading!” and there was an article about Alyssa. She worked hard, always remembering the last words her mom had said.
Don’t give up. Hope.
The words gave her everything. Hope, strength, courage, anything you could think of. She never felt she was tired the whole time she worked. She didn’t want any kids, any parents, anybody, to have the same sad experience as her.
By the end of the year, she had helped stop the spreading of malaria in many different ways. She received awards from hospitals, gifts from mothers who Alyssa had given hope and was in the school newspaper and the local newspaper.
Alyssa prayed to her mom everyday, told her how each day was, and the whole time, it felt as though her mom had been listening to her carefully while smiling, and Alyssa felt safe. She’ll never forget the terrible disease that had killed her mother.
*Intravenous Drip: When a person is in a really bad condition and can’t wake up to take medicine, the drip put s medicine in the body using a shot without needing to wake them up.