The greatest love

Allison The day started just like any other day. It was a warm spring day in September. Allison woke up in the morning feeling sweaty from the humidity, but that wasn’t unusual. She prepared breakfast for her two kids, eleven year old Maddie and six year old Timothy, and her husband Jonah. Maddie hardly eats her breakfast and was quiet except for one-word syllable answers, but that wasn’t all that unusual either. Even Timothy' antics that morning of throwing his toys in the toilet bowl and flushing it did not even cause Allison any stress at all. Certainly, nothing gives her any inkling of the life-changing event that would happen later that day. After her husband left for work, she drove her kids to school right on time, the Maroubra Primary School for Maddie and the kindergarten next door for Timothy. Then she went to the gym for a hard training session with her personal trainer. On other days, she would visit her parents who lived on their own about fifteen minutes away. From the gym, she went to the supermarket for grocery shopping, picked up Timothy at noon then went home and made lunch for the two of them. At two o'clock in the afternoon she picked up Maddie from school and dropped her off at home with instructions to heat up her food and to do her homework, then went with Timothy to his therapy. Timothy was recently diagnosed with ADHD and had daily therapy sessions to help with his communication and social skills. It had been a hard year for Allison and her husband, having to accept that diagnosis after years of saying to everyone that their son was just naughty or has speech delay. Even though her husband was doing well at his job as a finance manager at the government bank, the high cost of the daily therapy sessions means they had to really plan their financials carefully. Allison was preoccupied with Timothy (he was emptying his school bag and dropping all his things on the floor of the car) but she distinctly remembered giving her daughter a quick hug and saying she will be back in about an hour and a half and to keep the door locked. She thought Maddie was still very quiet on the way home but she said she wasn’t sick when asked, and she planned to talk more with Maddie later that night. Maddie was generally quiet and often moody, so Allison did not worry and thought maybe she had a problem with her friend Sally. When they got home later that afternoon, Allison knocked on her daughter's door. “Maddie, did you have your snack? The sandwich I made you is still in the fridge.”, she called out to no answer. She opened the door and saw her daughter sleeping on the bed. It was unusual for Maddie to take a nap, so she came closer to wake her up. Maybe she really was not feeling so well. “Maddie? Don’t you have a study group with Sally today?” Maddie was totally still. That was when Allison saw it on the bedside table: her bottle of paracetamol pills empty when there should be over half a bottle full. Allison was shocked to the core. She immediately called her daughter and shook her body, but Maddie was not responding at all. She screamed her daughter's name over and over, then finally came to her senses and pulled out her phone from her pocket and called emergency services. She yelled her name and address to the responding officer and asked them to send an ambulance as soon as possible. “I don’t know if she is breathing or not. Wait let me check. No I can’t tell you anything. I don’t feel anything. I don’t know. Please please come now.” Allison was in full panic mode now. She did not even know how to check for pulse and she did not think she did it properly. She was sobbing now, calling Maddie's name over and over again. She tried to lift Maddie up but did not have enough strength to do it. At some point Timothy came into the room but Allison barely noticed him. She sent him to the front door to wait for the paramedics. After what felt like a long time, the ambulance came. Paramedics lifted Maddie easily after assuring Allison she had a weak pulse. Allison fell to the floor in relief, tears streaming down her face. She followed the ambulance in her own car because she had to take her son with her. On the drive to the hospital, she called her husband and asked him to come to the hospital straight away. She told him she found Maddie passed out on the bed but found herself unable to say that Maddie had attempted to take her own life. It felt too real to her, too impossible to comprehend, so she decided that she would let the doctors explain it to her and her husband.