Page 22 - 2017 Spring-Summer Issue

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Downstairs

Thief

by Elizabeth Brady

I had a vivid dream shortly after Mack, our son, died. I
walked into our house through the front door and im-
mediately recognized that we had been robbed. I made
my way tentatively through each familiar room survey-
ing overturned furniture, shattered lamps; I noted the
computers were taken and the silver.

But, something inside assured me that they didn’t make
it upstairs.

On New Year’s Eve 2012, we cancelled our plans to meet
another family at the First Night celebrations because
Mack had what we thought was the flu and we were
looking forward to a quiet evening by the fire. We did
not know, and we will never know, what or how an infec-
tion entered the blood stream of our athletic, vibrant,
almost 9-year-old son and it stole his life in a matter of
hours. I had never heard of “sepsis” before Mack died
and did not know that it is a silent killer who arrives, like
a thief.

When I had this dream it seemed obvious to me that we
had been robbed of a beautiful person in our lives and
the joy of watching Mack grow and continue to achieve

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