THROUGH IT ALL

By Christina Lim

Christine Buffay has always considered herself a strong woman. She has faced head on any challenge life throws her way because of her size or gender or social status. However, when her husband is diagnosed with leukaemia, Christine is about to face the biggest challenge of her life.

As Christine, a mother of three children and also a women’s rights activist, crosses the milestones of her life’s journey, would she be able to pull through? Would she be able to keep her religious and moral beliefs and, at the same time, keep her family from falling apart? Follow this family of five as they journey through the sickness of a loved one, harassment, women empowerment, love, and family.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: May 23, 2022
• ISBN: 9781543770193

Christina Lim

CHRISTINA LIM - CDMP has a Honours Degree of Bachelor of Business Studies, Certified Digital Professional.

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Copyright © 2022 by Christina Lim.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Synopsis

Christine has always considered herself a strong woman. She has faced head on any challenge life throws her way because of her size or gender or social status. However, when her husband is diagnosed with leukaemia, Christine is about to face the biggest challenge of her life.

As Christine, a mother of three children and also a women’s rights activist, crosses the milestones of her life’s journey, would she be able to pull through? Would she be able to keep her religious and moral beliefs and, at the same time, keep her family from falling apart? Follow this family of five as they journey through the sickness of a loved one, sexual molestation and harassment, women empowerment, love, and family.

Reason for POV

The omniscient point of view would draw more readers because it allows them to see the perspectives of all the characters. It allows the readers to know how the characters feel towards one another and the reason for their actions.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 1

It doesn’t take a lot to ruin a person’s life. You can be the happiest human being on Earth, and it’ll take just a single moment to make all the happy moments fade away. For Tris, it was a single word.

Leukaemia.

With her hand squeezed into her husband’s, she listened to the doctor narrate the treatment plans and possible cures for the illness.

‘Four per cent.’

The doctor and her husband turned to look at her.

‘Excuse me?’ the doctor said, adjusting his glasses.

She looked up from her husband to her doctor and then repeated herself. ‘Four per cent. That’s the possibility of surviving cancer in general, but for leukaemia specifically, it’s just 2 per cent.’

‘Tris,’ her husband whispered, squeezing tighter on her hand.

‘I know that, ma’am, but when you look at it from a general point of view—’

‘I’d say my husband is a very specific man, and leukaemia is a very specific illness, don’t you think, Doctor?’ she said, her voiced laced with sarcasm.

‘Tris, please stop,’ her husband whispered again, and he turned in his chair to fully face her.

However, she didn’t look at him. She couldn’t bring herself to, so she kept her attention on the doctor.

‘We just always want our patients to keep a positive attitude when we give them this kind of news.’

An empty smile appeared on her face. ‘Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot that a positive attitude is one of the confirmed cures for leukaemia.’

The doctor took a deep breath and forced a smile. He didn’t have much patience for sassy patients like this, but he was trying to understand. ‘Mrs Buffay, I understand that you may be going through a hard time now, but you can’t lose hope.’

‘Lose hope?’

‘It’s possible that your husband would survive. He may be among the 4 per cent survivors.’

‘Oh, Doctor, I don’t need you to tell me that my husband is going to be among the 4 per cent survivors. I know he would be.’

‘So why—’

‘False hope,’ she said as she sat up straight and looked the doctor in the eye. Although her world was crumbling and her heart was breaking, she was not going to let it bring her down. ‘I have hope or faith or whatever it is that my husband is going to survive this . . . this . . .’ She couldn’t bring herself to associate her husband with the word, so she just went on. ‘But I’m not going to do that on a false hope that he has a 4 per cent chance of survival. I’m going to believe even if it’s a 0.2 per cent chance.’

She heard her husband sniff beside her, but she still couldn’t bring herself to look at him. All that was running through her mind was how one of them had to be strong for the other, and since she was not the one sick, she was going to be the one strong. She tightened her grip around her husband’s hand as he rested his forehead on her shoulder and let silent tears flow down his cheeks.

‘We’re going to be OK, Jordan. We’re going to be just fine,’ she said, patting his head silently.

The doctor stared at the couple, wondering if he should still be pissed at her sassiness or impressed by her feminine strength. He gave them a few minutes to comfort themselves before finally talking.

‘So let’s discuss treatment plans and payments to save your husband’s life.’

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Immediately, the couple got home that evening. Tris went straight to the kitchen to make dinner for her husband.

‘Tris. We can just order in. You don’t have to cook tonight.’

She smiled at him as she tied the apron firmly around her waist. ‘You have leukaemia. The world is not coming to an end,’ she joked.

Jordan looked at his wife in admiration. She was the strongest woman he knew. Even if she was hurting and scared, she just kept going.

‘What would you like to eat?’ she asked him as she removed the pots from the lower cabinet of the kitchen. ‘You know what? I’ll just make your favourite,’ she said and immediately got to work.

A few hours later, the couple were seated with a full dinner with chocolate cake as dessert.

‘Jordan,’ Tris said quietly as she pushed her empty plate away from her.

‘Mhmm,’ he replied with a spoonful of lasagne.

‘I told you not to talk with food in your mouth.’

He uncomfortably swallowed the food and took a sip of water. ‘That was actually a tough situation right there, honey. You say I shouldn’t talk with my mouth full, and you also told me not to take so much time to reply to you.’

A small smile appeared at the side of her lips as she knew he had fallen for her trap. ‘You should have swallowed first, honey.’

‘Noted,’ he replied and cleaned his mouth with a napkin. ‘What did you want to say?’

She took a deep breath and leaned forward on the table. Jordan knew immediately that she was about to say something that he probably would not agree with. He took one last bite of his food and carefully pushed his plate aside.

‘When the children come back from summer camp, we have to tell them.’

Jordan gritted his teeth and looked at his wife. ‘Tell them what?’

‘What else, Jordan? That you have cancer.’

‘And why do I have to tell my 14-year-old daughters and my 17-year-old son that I’m going to die?’

Tris bit down on her lower lip, trying her best not to get angry. ‘You’re not going to die, honey. You have cancer.’

‘Cancer that might kill me.’

‘Whether it kills you or not, Jordan, we can’t keep it from our children.’

Jordan clenched his fist, trying just as much as his wife not to get angry at her suggestion, which seemed outrageous to him. ‘Why would we burden our children with such heavy news? They are so young, and they—’

‘Burden?’ She stared at him, her eyes brimming with tears, but she did not let them fall. ‘You’re their father. They deserve to know that you’re sick.’

‘What they deserve is to sleep and wake up every day without having to worry about their father. What they deserve is to be dropped off at school by their father and picked up.’ He gritted his teeth. ‘Don’t you understand? I’m their hero. I’m the man.’

She frowned at him. ‘The man? Is that what this is about? Protecting your stupid male ego and—’

‘Christine!’ he said and banged the table, causing her to flinch and glare at him.

‘What, Jordan? Did I step a little too close to the truth there?’ she said, her gaze on him unwavering.

The couple stared at each other for a full minute without saying a word, both using the time to calm themselves down. Slowly, their breathing began to reduce, and Jordan covered his face with his hand, taking in a very deep breath. Then he looked up at Tris again, his voice calmer.

‘I just . . . I don’t want the children to see me like this. I’m supposed to take care of