Hugged by an Angel
Author: Roberta Capizzi
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Genre: Contemporary Romance
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Synopsis: How can you ever love again when tragedy has crushed your heart?
Kathleen used to
love life. She had plans, dreams, and faith in life; but that was before the
accident that took it all away from her in an instant. Now that her beloved
brother is dead and she's confined to a wheelchair, her future is but a dark
cloud hovering above her head. How can she ever find the will to move on and
keep living without him? Even the cares of the happy-go-lucky American
physiotherapist who's helping her with her rehab therapies are all in vain.
Life seems to have lost its meaning, until one night she receives an unexpected
celestial visit…
Colin has been
working as a physiotherapist in Dublin for almost five years, but he’s never
bonded so much with a patient like he is bonding with Kathleen; there's
something about those sad blue eyes that makes him want to help her, to take
away the pain that reminds him so much of his own. Having lost both his parents
in a plane crash when he was only sixteen, Colin knows how it feels to have
someone you love taken so abruptly away from you, and he makes it his mission
to help Kathleen find her faith in life again. But something changes along the
way…
Sometimes love
can work miracles. If you believe.
SNEAK PEEK
I woke up in a bed that didn’t feel like
my own. I opened my eyes and the white light was so bright it stung, so I
quickly shut them again.
I couldn’t remember where I was and I
felt weird, as if something were wrong, although I couldn’t quite define what
or why.
I took a deep breath and suddenly
realized there was something stuck in my nostrils. Instinctively I brought my
hand up to touch it; but when I did I felt a piercing pain in my arm. My
eyelids fluttered open and my eyes slowly adjusted to the bright light. I saw a
needle piercing my skin and I shivered. I had never been a fan of needles and
the sight of one pulsing fluids into my arm was enough to give me the creeps.
I looked away and noticed a screen next
to my bed from which a steady, rhythmical beep came, echoing in the empty room.
Okay, I was in hospital; it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that one
out.
But why was I there? I tried to remember
where I had been or what I’d been doing before everything had gone black but,
as much as I tried, it was all blurred. I attempted to turn my head to check if
there was a clock or something that could give me a clue as to what time it was
but my neck felt constricted and I noticed I was wearing a neck collar.
Grand. So I had a stiff neck, too. I
really needed to find out what hospital I was in and why, because the
uncertainty was driving me crazy.
I could hear distant voices outside the room
echoing down a corridor, but I wasn’t sure they would hear me if I called for
help. I needed to get out of bed, but when I tried to move my legs something
just didn’t feel right. It took me a couple of seconds to realize I couldn’t
feel them; it was as if my body ended just below my waist. A chill ran down my
spine, taking my breath away.
With shaking hands I slowly lifted the
sheet covering the lower part of my body and I squinted, not sure I was ready
to see if my legs weren’t there anymore. But they were, just where they’d
always been, so I opened my eyes wider and touched my thigh with the tip of my
finger.
Nothing.
I pinched the bare skin, but it felt
weird, as if I were touching someone else’s leg. I couldn’t feel my thigh,
although my fingers were still pinching as hard as they could. Panic overcame
me and I propped myself up on the bed using my arms to support my weight;
however I wasn’t as strong as I thought and when my left arm, the one the IV
was attached to, gave in, I slipped and fell, crashing to the floor. I pulled
everything attached to my body down with me except for the oxygen tube that was
wrenched out of my nose.
I didn’t feel pain though; at first I
didn’t feel anything at all. Then sudden despair took hold of me as I lay
there, facedown on the tiled floor of a hospital room, and my first thought was
how much I needed my brother Declan to wrap me in his arms right now.
“Oh, dear, what happened to you?”
A woman came rushing in wearing a pair of
those green rubber slippers only doctors and nurses wear. She turned back
toward the door and I heard her shout: “Colin, come here now, will ya? I need
help.”
A minute later, I saw another set of feet
in white sneakers and two strong arms lifted me up; shortly afterwards I was
back in bed.
“Trying to sneak out, were you?” a soft,
deep, male voice said and, as I looked up to match a face to the sound, I was a
little taken aback by the unexpected vision. A young man was standing by my bed
and my first impression was that he reminded me of Declan.
His eyes were blue, the same shade as my
brother’s, and he had brown hair just like him—only his was wavy and tousled
and it slightly curled up on the back of his neck, while Declan’s had always
been short.
The nurse fixed the nasal cannula back
into my nose, checked that the needle was still in my arm and, when she looked
at me again, I noticed she had a friendly smile. She looked in her mid-fifties,
and her face was round and rosy; her uniform seemed a little too tight for her
generous curves and her manner was somehow reassuring, very motherly. It was
silly, but it made me feel a little better.
“I’m Judith, by the way. I’m the head
nurse in this ward and you can call me whenever you need anything.” She smiled
and I nodded. “Good, now I’ll leave you in the capable hands of our best
physiotherapist. He’ll keep you company until Dr. O’Donnell gets here. You
don’t mind, Colin, do you?” the nurse asked, turning toward the man in a white
t-shirt and pants. He smiled and nodded; then the nurse looked at me and said
she’d be back later.
I didn’t say a word; besides being in
shock, I was too scared to find out if I’d lost my voice, too.
I looked away, taking a long, deep breath
as I stared at the gray-paneled ceiling, wondering what was going to happen
next.
BOOK SOUNDTRACK
Kathleen’s
(they’re mostly about her brother):
Angel - Sarah
McLachlan
Could it be any
harder - The Calling
When I look to
the sky - Train
There you’ll be
- Faith Hill
Never gone -
Backstreet Boys
One sweet day -
Mariah Carey
Our farewell -
Within Temptation (I imagined Declan singing this to Kathleen)
Falling into you
- Celine Dion (for Colin)
Thank God I
found you - Mariah Carey (for Colin)
Feels like home
- Chantal Kreviazuk (for Colin)
Colin’s:
Galway girl -
Steve Earle
I love the way
you love me - Boyzone
I’m a believer -
Smash Mouth
Turning page -
Sleeping At Last
Never knew I
needed - Ne-Yo
Feel - Darren
Hayes
Lost in You -
Westlife
Close your eyes
- Michael Bublè
Rush over me -
Backstreet Boys
I knew I loved
you - Savage Garden
About the Author: An avid reader
since her childhood years and being an only child, Roberta always enjoyed the
company of her fictional friends from the children’s books she loved reading,
while she dreamed of writing her own stories one day.
It was when she
discovered novels by authors Rosamunde Pilcher and Maeve Binchy in her teenage
years that she realized it was time she put down in words the stories she had
kept well hidden in her mind until then.
What started as
a hobby, soon turned into a real passion and a way of life, until she could no
longer keep the stories to herself, and decided to get over her fears and share
them with the world.
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