Halfway to forever by Karen Kingsbury

appreciated his upbeat manner. He would be assisting in the surgery, after all, and
319 she needed him and the other doctors to be positive. "Good morning."
The doctor looked from jade to Tanner and back again. "Well,
Jade, this is the first day of the rest of your life."
Jade nodded and glanced at Tanner. He was whiter than the
sheets, and his expression was a contrast of trust and sheer terror.
She leveled her gaze at Dr. Layton. "I'm ready"
Tanner stood back while they lifted her from the bed to the
gurney. She winced as they gave her the first in a series of shots
that would knock her out for the operation. Before they took her
away, Tanner came alongside her and whispered, "I love you, jade.
Come back to me, okay?"
A warm sensation made its way through jade's veins and her
eyelids grew heavy. "I will, you'll see."
"I'll be praying."
"Thanks..." Her words were slurred, and everything faded
around her.
The last thing she saw as she was wheeled from the room, as
the medication took her under, was Tanner's face. After that she
closed her eyes.
Somewhere she'd read that the last image a person saw before
brain surgery would be the first they'd remember when they
regained consciousness. If that was true, only one image could
help her brain survive the coming hours, help preserve her personality
and memory and everything else she held dear.
The precious image of Tanner Eastman's face.
She fought the medication's pull, doing everything in her
power to hold Tanner's image there, but no matter how hard she
held on, the crispness of his face began to blur and fade until
finally the image disappeared entirely.
Then there was nothing but darkness. . .and the strangest
sense that she was being carried. Not by human arms, but holy
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ones. The sensation grew stronger until finally, despite the total darkness, jade fell into the deepest, most
peaceful sleep she'd ever known.
Six hours later, Tanner was sitting in the waiting room with his loved ones when Dr. Layton came up to
them. Tanner was immediately on his feet, his heart soaring over this one fact:
Dr. Layton was smiling.
"Well...?" Tanner's heart raced and he struggled to breathe. "How is she?"
"The surgery went beautifully. We're almost positive we got all the cancer."
A chorus of, "Thank You, God" and "Thank You, Jesus" came from Matt and Hannah and Pastor Steve.
Ty ran across the room and hugged Tanner. "I knew she'd make it, Dad. I knew it."
Tanner's knees trembled. She was alive! Thank God, she was
alive. He closed his eyes and clenched his fists, his voice merely a whisper. "Thank You.. .thank You..."
Almost at the same moment, he shifted his attention back to Dr. Layton. "Can I talk to her?"
"Not exactly" A shadow fell across the doctor's face. "You can sit with her, but she's unconscious,
remember? That's what we expected. We'd like to see her come around in the next few hours." He