Spotlight: Passing Through Brandiss by Patricia Yager Delagrange
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About the Book
After the tragic loss of her husband, Annie and her young son search for a new life full of meaning and hope. Fate nudges Annie into the arms of a man whose wife disappeared with his child years ago.
Annie’s life spins out of control when first the pregnant teenager she hires to help her with her garden asks Annie to adopt her baby and shortly afterwards the long-lost wife of the man Annie loves reappears.
Riddled with grief and heartache, the experiences demonstrate how, even in the face of overwhelming sorrow, opening her heart and home to those most in need of love has reaped unexpected joy for Annie and her son.
Excerpt
A cream-colored blanket covered him from the waist down, a white sheet folded over at the edge. Gauze shielded the top part of his head and a black accordion tube snaked out of his mouth. Machines surrounded his bed, blinking and beeping, the rhythm oddly calming.
He was alive.
Annie laced her fingers with his and squeezed, willing her energy to pass through him, as if her touch could keep him more alive than the contraptions. She leaned over the side of the bed, kissed his cheek, inhaling the sickeningly sweet scent of Betadine.
Suddenly the beeps burst to life, louder, more insistent and irritating. A thin blue line, straight and flat, slid across the black screen on the monitor above his bed.
Firm hands grasped Annie’s shoulders and pulled her away from his bedside.
“What are you doing? Stop! What’s happening?”
A nurse tugged on Annie’s arm and led her through the doorway. “Mrs. Davidson. You have to leave the room. Now.”
Annie glanced back at Cam before passing the room’s threshold, shuffled backward into the hallway and banged against the wall. Doctors and nurses raced from all directions and funneled to Cam’s bedside.
She stared at the closed door to Cameron’s room, her eyes burning. “Please, God, save him. I need him. Rafe needs him. Don’t let him die.” No matter how busy God was, helping other people in the world, perhaps Annie’s personal plea would reach Him.
She envisioned a happy scenario. Cam was going to pull through. She knew it.
The door swung open. Dr. Tsao walked out slowly, eyes and head angled down until she reached the middle of the wide hallway. Annie pushed away from the wall. Their eyes met.
The doctor didn’t have to say a word. The downward twist of her lips, the flat glaze of her eyes. Annie knew Dr. Tsao wouldn’t be uttering the words she hoped to hear.
About the Author
Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Patricia attended St. Mary’s College, studied her junior year at the University of Madrid, received a B.A. in Spanish at UC Santa Barbara then went on to get a Master’s degree in Education at Oregon State University. She lives with her husband and two teenage children in Alameda, across the bay from San Francisco, along with two very large chocolate labs, Annabella and Jack. Her Friesian horse Maximus lives in the Oakland hills in a stall with a million dollar view.
