For You Mom

For You MomByBen SteinlageFor you, Mom: is a love story mixed with tragedy for Jerry Dawson who is a college student working on his degree in Archeology. As with quite a few students his age he is from a single parent family. Within this group he is part of a smaller group where his mother is rapidly losing touch with reality after his father is killed in an auto accident. With her decline he finds his greatest wish is to help her so he can go on with his life. Thankfully, he is able to maintain his sanity through his girl friend Cindy and their friends in college.One of his friends in this group convinces his father to let Jerry work on an archeological dig. Though this could lead him to a scholarship he is still bothered by his mother and needs a way of supporting her. Then while he is working the dig a possible answer makes itself available to him to solve his problem.Before he is able to do anything worth mentioning he finds out two of his friends are in the ICU ward at the university hospital. Between his mother and friends he is driven to do whatever it takes to make things right.Join Jerry on his quest for a normal if not a happier life.Excerpt: I didn’t get to her before I broke into tears, because when I looked down at her, I found her to be in a mass of bloody bandages, with tubes in her arms, and going down her throat. From what I could see of all of her face, but what I could see of it, it was swollen, her eyes were blackened and cheeks here were scraped up to the point she didn’t look like the woman I knew. The monitor beside her was beeping so I glanced over at it. Though I wasn’t sure what the numbers were I got the feeling, they weren’t good. A line on the left side of the monitor was showing peaks and then flat spots confirming the numbers.＂I’m sor...ry..., your...attempts didn’t...,＂ she tried to say. ＂I love you... anyway.＂＂I love you...,＂ I started to say. I knew what she was referring to so she didn’t have finish the statement. I reached out and took her hand, as I began to squeeze it; her eyes went blank with the monitor squealing to tell everyone her heart had stopped.

Author Ben Steinlage: Though born in California, he now lives in New Mexico with his wife. He is a father of six children, seven grand-children. Professionally he was a consultant in the printing industry. Now that he is retired, he spends a good part of his time writing and helping other writers. His writing began more than fifty some years ago as a hobby. This past time has led him to become a published writer. As a writer he likes challenges, which means he writes in a variety of genres. To date, he has written (though not all published) better than thirty stores of historical fiction, murder mysteries, to fantasy. It wasn’t until 2007 that his wife decided it was time to share his works with the world that he became a published author. To his surprise, he found that others enjoyed his stories as much as his family. In offering this story to the many readers out in the world, he hopes this story will be as enjoyable as his past stories.