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Show in my father's house/ 212 spared Saul's life. He came home too soon, against the doctor's orders, thinking of the bills and that my mother would be able to care for him as well as any nurse. But at home there were no shots for pain, no instruments to keep the punctured lung cleared of blood pumping regularly into the cavity, making him howl like a car-struck dog. He coughed up blood and groaned and worried about the hospital bill. "How will I ever finish college, Mama?" he asked as she gently forced him back into bed. She shook her head. "You must lie down, Saul. When you pace the floor, it makes you bleed harder. The doctor said we must keep you in bed." "But the bills, Mama? I've got to get back to work so I can pay the bills." And he would fall into fits of delirium until the pressure and pain made him sit upright again. When Saul's condition had us all terrified and distraught, my mother called my father at his office in Salt Lake. "He's in so much pain, Rulon. I just don't know what to do for him." My father told her not to worry. "That pain is keeping him alive, Hannah. It wakes him up and makes him move. And that will help him mend. Suffering can be restorative, darling. I wish you wouldn't forget that." But Saul's distress peaked hourly until he begged my mother to call the doctor. In a few minutes they were on their way to the hospital to have blood drained from Saul's lungs. The experience left him shaken and pale, and each time he prepared to go |