Jenna Aurora Whitson's friend from Louisiana tells us how she is doing, from his standpoint. He writes about her and how they met, and how they have been in love ever since. (Jenna is presently in the hospital, recovering from injuries sustained in a car accident.)
I am so bored sitting here, watching Jenna sleeping her life away here in the hospital; there really isn't much one can do in the hospital except see patients (that is, if they are awake or not in surgery or having some sort of procedure done), watch tv in the waiting room area (and half of the time there isn't anything worth watching on!), read the same old books or magazines over and over, and/or go to the snack area and load up on junk food while your mind always wanders back to the person you are visiting and wondering if they are going to pull through. Such as is the case now with Jenna.
Jenna's full name is Jenna Aurora Whitson. She is in the hospital because she had been in a car wreck involving her Volkswagen Beetle and a pickup truck; and she suffered devastating injuries. She suffered two broken jaws (both upper and lower jaws), and her left arm, hip, and leg, as well as a punctured lung and a ruptured spleen. She just recently got out of the Intensive Care ward and is healing, albeit slowly.
Jenna is my friend, and she and I have now known each other for over 30 years. She is now 44; I am 50. But to me, she is still as beautiful as the first day I first laid my eyes on her, and she and I have since fallen hopelessly in love.
I am her friend, Michael Wayne Doucet, and I live in Shreveport, Louisiana, where I am a bartender by trade. I have known Jenna Aurora Whitson since she was a little bitty squirt of 13, when I was living in Alaska. At the time, she was living in Barrow (she lives in Anchorage now), and when I first laid eyes upon this short, heavyset little girl with dark eyes, black hair, and dark skin, I was smitten. She was beautiful, and she was very shy and quiet in nature. I met her at one of the stores my father happened to be at at the time, and I was instantly smitten by her Native good looks. I found out that she was part German, part Athabaskan Indian, and part Inuit (Eskimo); this explained for her dark features and thick, straight hair that fell down her backside in a thick, black curtain. She had an older sister, Jerrica, but I had no interest in Jerrica: Jenna was the one I was after.
Of course, I couldn't really date her at the time: she was six years younger than me: I was 19, she was only 13, just a child, and yet, when I saw her, my heart fell at my feet, and I couldn't take my eyes off her. She was about the cutest little thing I had ever seen, and I knew when I saw her that she was the one for me.
When I was older, my daddy, Percival (Percy), decided that he couldn't take the cold up in Alaska any longer (we were Cajuns, and the cold was too much for our thin South Louisiana blood); so we moved back to Louisiana, where I still reside to this day, living in Shreveport. (I was born in Lake Charles.) Now, Shreveport is a lot further north than the bayou Cajun country that was my boyhood home, but it is a lot further south than Alaska, and it is a HELL of a LOT warmer, too! But even after I got back to Louisiana, for some reason, I just couldn't get Jenna Aurora Whitson out of my mind: I would think of her, or she would think of me; and somehow, through extra sensory perception, we both knew when we were thinking of one another, or we knew what the other was feeling, or if one of us were sick or not. Sometimes she'd call me on the phone, or I would call her, and we would tell one another that we were thinking of one another; and the same thing happened if we got a letter (or, since I got my computer, e-mail). Somehow or other, we we would think of one another, and one of us would know it.
Jenna grew into a beautiful, young lady who started school; she was now living in Anchorage, where she was attending the University of Alaska, and she was smart and made good grades in all her classes. She kept to herself, and she was still the quiet, unassuming, shy person I remembered upon first meeting her years before; and I continued with my own affairs here in Shreveport, Louisiana, where I was making good money as a bartender. Sometimes, during the year, I would fly up to Alaska for a week or two to see Jenna, and we would always have the best time (but for some reason, she never came down to Louisiana!). I tried my best to get her to come down to Louisiana, but somehow, she always resisted (I guess she was scared of my family!).
I think I had better mention this now, so you are aware: Jenna is quiet; always has been, but she has a good reason. You see, she is hearing-impaired. She was born this way; but she CAN and DOES read lips (and quite well I must say!). She knows sign language (as I do), but she would rather read lips (especially now, as she has a broken arm, and it IS rather hard to sign with a broken arm, you know??). So she does her communicating with her eyes or by writing things down on paper until her other arm heals; and it is very frustrating, on her and my part. She also has a trache; but that is about to come out in a few days; she is breathing on her own, and she has been fighting with the ventilator tube, setting it off every so often (scaring me and the nurses!); but one thing IS clear: she wants it out of her throat...NOW. She doesn't WANT to wait a few more days before they take her off the ventilator tube and then remove the trache tube from her throat! She wants both tubes to be gone NOW...as in TODAY, NOT in a few days!! LOL
But even being deaf hasn't stopped Jenna from having a normal life. She may not hear or talk as I do, but she still does everything a normal person does: she has a job (or DID before she got hurt and ended up in the hospital here in Tennessee; she was on her way to see me, but didn't quite make it!), she goes to college and takes classes, and she can take care of herself very well. She is very determined in spirit, and she is fun to be with; she is a very happy person by nature, and she loves to laugh and have a good time. She also loves to dance (she can dance by feeling the rhythm of the song; and this is how she keeps up with the music), and she loves to snuggle up to me whenever I come to see her. When we are NOT together, we are always calling one another on the phone (she has TTY) or on the computer; somehow we are ALWAYS communicating! Her handicap has never stopped her, and to me she is as normal as anyone else, excepting that she just can't hear and must "talk" in a different manner than I. I talk with my mouth; she talks with her hands and eyes, and she is a very expressive talker: you KNOW what she is saying by her hands and by her facial expressions; she does NOT hide ANYTHING from me! (She never has! She is very honest and open with her feelings, and this is one thing I love about her!)
Now she is injured, and is recovering in the hospital, and I am staying at a hotel not far from the hospital. That way, when it is time to go see her, I go to the hospital, and do NOT leave until visiting hours have ended for the day, and then I go back to the hotel, where I usually just crash and go to sleep, fully clothed (and probably stinking to high heaven by now; it's been a while since I last had a bath!). I have already had to ask my maman back home in Louisiana to wire me some money; not working is really starting to hurt me financially, but as long as Jenna is here in Tennessee, lying in a hospital, recovering from horrific injuries, there is NO way I am NOT going to be there for her! She needs me right now, and I am NOT going to abandon her! Especially with Christmas coming up and all...
Rovella is a beautiful woman with a cold heart whom blames herself for an unfortunate old family secret that is literally ruining her life. This secret impedes a gorgeous woman from having happiness in her childhood, and throughout her life. Dark sec
Rovella is a beautiful woman with a cold heart whom blames herself for an unfortunate old family secret that is literally ruining her life. This secret impedes a gorgeous woman from having happiness in her childhood, and throughout her life. Dark sec
