温馨夜读 PART3 11 Love Can Last Forever 爱无止境（在线收听）

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[00:00.46]Love Can Last Forever 爱无止境

[00:06.47]I can honestly say it was the best of times and the worst of times.

[00:12.06]I was joyfully expecting my first child at the same time

[00:16.71]that my once energetic mother was losing her battle with a brain tumor.

[00:22.01]As Mother grew closer and closer to death, 

[00:25.76]my baby grew closer and closer to life inside me.

[00:30.11]My biggest fear was that their lives would never connect.

[00:34.15]I grieved not only for the upcoming loss of my mother,

[00:38.43]but also that she and my baby would never know each other.

[00:42.79]A few weeks before my due date, Mother lapsed into a deep coma.

[00:48.60]Her doctors told us she would never awaken.

[00:53.19]We brought mother home.

[00:55.51]As often as I could, 

[00:57.51]I sat beside her and talked to her about the baby inside me.

[01:01.75]I hoped that somehow deep inside, she knew.

[01:05.14]On February 3, 1989, at about the same time my labor started, 

[01:11.78]mother opened her eyes.

[01:13.34]When they told me this at the hospital,

[01:15.95]I called home and asked for the phone to be put to mom’s ear.

[01:21.66]“Mom—Mom—listen. The baby is coming!

[01:26.67]You’re going to have a new grandchild. Do you understand?”

[01:31.40]“Yes!”

[01:33.03]What a wonderful word! The first clear word she’d spoken in months!

[01:39.27]When I called again an hour later, they told me the impossible:

[01:44.31]mom was sitting up, her oxygen tubes removed. She was smiling.

[01:49.77]“Mom, it’s a boy! You have a new grandson!”

[01:54.37]“Yes! Yes! I know!”

[01:57.33]By the time I brought Jacob home, 

[02:00.12]Mom was sitting in her chair, dressed and ready to welcome him.

[02:04.22]Tears of joy blocked my vision 

[02:07.22]as I laid my son in her arms and she clucked at him.

[02:11.09]They stared at each other. They knew.

[02:14.37]For two more weeks, Mother clucked and held Jacob.

[02:18.86]For two weeks she spoke to my father, 

[02:21.85]her children and grandchildren in complete sentences.

[02:25.53]For two miracle weeks, she gave us joy.

[02:29.36]Then she quietly slipped back into a coma and, 

[02:33.89]after visits from all her children,

[02:35.93]was finally free of the pain and confines of a body.

[02:40.43]Memories of my son’s birth will always be bittersweet for me,

[02:45.12]but it was at this time that I learned an important truth about living.

[02:49.72]For while both joy and sorrow are fleeting,

[02:53.48]and often intertwined, love has the power to overcome both.

[02:58.25]And love can last forever.