Recessional by James A. Michener
‘And we certainly don’t want that,’ Krenek interrupted. Zorn knew Krenek was right, but he felt sick to his stomach. Once more, it seemed, the legal system was going to make it impossible to do the ethically and medically correct thing.
Now Victor spoke up. ‘There’s got to be something we can do.’ Carried away by his youthful enthusiasm, the law student spent some minutes rattling off court decisions in Missouri, Oregon and California that tended to prove that in other states, at least, families like the Umlaufs had been given permission to terminate heroic measures to keep senile elder members alive. Lawyer Brookfield listened attentively, then congratulated the young fellow for his thoroughness in citing precedent.
‘You are right, young man. And there is some hope that we can accomplish the same thing here in Florida. What we need to do is obtain a court order making one of you, and I think that would be Noel, judicial guardian. As such, you would be empowered to make health-care decisions for your mother.’
As Brookfield explained the court procedure, the Umlaufs began to feel some hope that their terrible dilemma would be solved. But then Brookfield went on: ‘This morning as I was leaving my house to come here I received a most unpleasant call from a lawyer named Hasslebrook. He’s with that very powerful organization Life Is Sacred.’
Zorn groaned.
‘Somehow,’ Brookfield went on, ‘he had learned I was coming to this meeting and what it was about.’ The lawyer looked sharply at Zorn and Farquhar. ‘I don’t know what’s going on in this establishment, but if I were you I’d find out who in Extended Care or in your offices is passing information to this character.’ The lawyer continued: ‘He demanded to speak at the meeting. Said he’d make life hell for the Umlaufs, for the Palms and for me if he didn’t get a chance to be heard. His threats sounded serious enough so I asked him to come by at ten.’
Zorn looked at his watch; it was almost ten.
When the Umlaufs protested a stranger’s becoming involved in their family’s business, Brookfield said, ‘I apologize for his intrusion. But he has one tremendously potent weapon that he’s not afraid to use. Publicity. So watch your step. Don’t antagonize this nasty fellow.’
Just then, Nurse Varney rapped on the door to say Dr. Zorn had a visitor, and in came Clarence Hasslebrook, still slightly obsequious, still grimly determined to have his way, still looking uncomfortable in his new clothes, still a squirming but formidable figure.
Brookfield said: ‘I think those of you associated with the Palms are acquainted with lawyer Clarence Hasslebrook, a resident of Gateways and a distinguished lawyer from Boston, Massachusetts. As a member of the nationwide organization Life Is Sacred he has a considerable interest in the Umlauf case and insists on ensuring that no moves are made that would end Mrs. Umlauf’s life prematurely.’ Hasslebrook said nothing, but when young Umlauf cried: ‘We’ll get a court order,’ he smiled indulgently. When this infuriated the young fellow so that he swore: ‘We know what Grandmother wanted and we’ll fight this battle in her behalf,’ Hasslebrook finally spoke: ‘You do not know what your grandmother wanted. I can get a sworn affidavit from a nurse who attended your grandmother during her heart attack and heard her beg that every means possible be used to preserve her life. Like many people she had a change of heart when she finally looked death in the eye.’
Noel gasped. Gretchen, the more perceptive of the two, said, ‘Mr. Hasslebrook, you are lying. I know my mother-in-law better than you or any nurse does. I know how much it pained her to see her own mother-in-law and husband live out their last months as vegetables. I know in my heart that she did not change her mind when facing her own death.’
‘And we’ll convince the court of that,’ Victor added.
‘We’ll see about that,’ Hasslebrook replied coolly. ‘Your family is determined to end your grandmother’s life and has the money to pay a lawyer to help you, but the Society will protest your petition. In fact, we’ll petition the court to have me named as legal guardian. We’ve decided to make this a test case, relevant for all states where efforts are under way to legalize the wanton murder of old folks.’
This accusation was so blatant, and so palpably wide of the Umlauf situation, that Noel sprang to his son’s defense: ‘Mr. Hasslebrook, we’re a standard American family, churchgoers, voters, taxpayers and country club members. We are not weirdos on the fringe, we’re at the very heart of America. And we’re going to fight you every inch of the way to establish the right of the elderly person in full possession of her powers to decide that she does not want to be kept alive when any reasonable hope for recovery is gone.’ And there the tense meeting ended.
To the local press, Noel and Gretchen explained that they were only asking the court for ‘the right to disconnect the tubes, to halt the power to the machines, to allow the inner forces that have kept Mother alive for eighty-one years in an orderly God-directed way to run their natural course. That’s all we ask, that’s all Mother asked in her living will. That right we shall fight for.’
Administrator Krenek gave orders that no strangers be admitted to Extended Living and that the nurses there protect the tubes and machines controlling Mrs. Umlauf’s life: ‘They are not to be disturbed or ruptured or turned off by anybody.’ Two security guards were employed to monitor the reception area and the elevators, and both Dr. Farquhar and lawyer Brookfield had the unpleasant duty of informing the Umlaufs that they were now professionally bound to keep their mother in Extended Care. This meant, in effect, that they could no longer take any step that might look as if they were encouraging or hastening the death of Berta Umlauf.
The case took a dramatic turn two days later when young Victor Umlauf, outraged by what was happening to his family, sneaked through a rarely used back door onto the third floor, spoke tenderly to his comatose grandmother before giving her a kiss, and started ripping off the various bits of apparatus that were keeping her alive. Alerted by the medical alarm, Nurse Grimes rushed to Room 312 and lunged at him as she shouted for the other nurses to help her. Four young women grappled with Umlauf to keep him from destroying the crucial equipment. Soon the extra guard on the elevator, a burly man, arrived to help, and Victor was dragged away.
In the morning Hasslebrook announced there would be no more such incidents. A local judge had issued a restraining order directing young Umlauf to stay clear of the third floor or find himself in contempt of court and facing a jail sentence.
The case, of course, became a cause célèbre with headlines in papers and interviews on television. Conservatives nationwide made Hasslebrook a hero as a defender of human life, while liberals tended to side with the Umlaufs, even though they were a staunchly Republican family. Young Victor Umlauf became a celebrity, and when he sneaked back onto the third floor in a second attempt to aid his grandmother and was thrown in jail for contempt of court, signs proliferated demanding his freedom.
Noel Umlauf, feeling himself largely responsible for launching this brouhaha, posted bond for his son’s release but backed away from any responsibility for the fracas. His feisty wife, Gretchen, however, had become so agitated by the patent unfairness of the situation that one night she persuaded her son to ignore the court order, sneak back and this time really disrupt the machines. He did succeed in getting back and reached his grandmother’s bed, but Nurse Grimes again spotted him and he was thrown into jail for an additional fifteen days. Again signs covered Tampa calling for his release and for Berta’s right to a decent death.
Throughout the hubbub, Clarence Hasslebrook remained unruffled, fortified by his battery of court orders. To many, he was the old lady’s protection against her unfeeling family, and when in another part of Florida an elderly man perpetrated a mercy killing of his aged and failing wife, there was a public outcry among the elderly: ‘This is what we’re trying to stop in Florida. Life truly is sacred.’
But the Umlauf group was not powerless, even though Victor was in jail. They quickly learned to use the press, too. Gretchen wanted to show
At this critical point, Berta regained a degree of consciousness and seemed dimly aware of being attached to the various tubes. When the staff discovered that she had succeeded in pulling out the IV from her arms, Nurse Grimes overreacted wildly and had her put into a straitjacket, a terrible invention consisting of a shirt with very long sleeves that could be wrapped completely around the body and tied the second time in a tight knot in the middle of the back. The person restrained in this way—desperate criminal, convicted killer or demented patient giving trouble—could not move his or her arms or attend to bathroom needs. It was a barbarous punishment, uncivilized even for a fractious jail prisoner but unthinkable for a fragile old woman. When the Umlaufs learned what had been done, they appealed to Kenneth Krenek, who said that he was powerless to countermand the nurse’s orders in Health, and he advised the family that Dr. Zorn did not have that privilege either. Nurse Grimes’s decision stood. A defeat for the euthanasia freaks but a victory honoring the dictates of Clarence Hasslebrook’s committee.
But the other Umlaufs were not powerless, for that morning, when Berta’s law-student grandson was again released from jail his mother and he entered into a conspiracy. Though Victor was barred from seeing his grandmother, Gretchen bullied her way onto the third floor before Nurse Grimes was aware she was coming, and she saw with horror her mother-in-law lying imprisoned in a straitjacket immobilizing her arms. The tubes were back in place, the various machines were functioning and Berta Krause Umlauf looked vacantly into her daughter-in-law’s eyes as if pleading: Gretchen, you swore to protect me from this. Gretchen replied as if she could be heard: ‘Oh, Mother! What have they done to you?’
Gretchen, forty-two years old and not a powerful woman, swore that her mother-in-law would be released from this tyranny one way or another. She kissed Berta and called for the head nurse.
‘Surely the laws here at the Palms don’t permit patients to be restrained like this?’ and Nurse Grimes replied: ‘The laws do permit it. Dr. Zorn would be quite angry if he saw this, but your mother has been quite intractable.’
‘Unfasten her, now!’
‘You have no power to give me orders. If you don’t leave I’ll have to call a guard.’
‘As a relative, I have a right to be here. Now, back off while I free my mother.’
Younger and stronger than Nurse Grimes, Gretchen elbowed her aside, and began to undo the straitjacket. Set free after hours of imprisonment, Berta stared into her daughter-in-law’s eyes, and as Gretchen bent to kiss her good-bye, she thought she saw gratitude in the old woman’s eyes.
When Gretchen was halfway to the elevator she felt quite sick and looked about her for some place to relieve herself, but Nurse Grimes had returned with a guard and asked brusquely: ‘Now what does your precious court order permit you to do?’
‘I am looking for …’ Gretchen began weakly, and then cried in a loud voice: ‘I’m about to vomit!’ And she did so, in the middle of the hallway. Glaring at Nurse Grimes, Gretchen wiped her mouth and said bitterly: ‘What I saw in there made me sick to my stomach.’ As she left the floor, she vowed to herself: Tonight, God willing, she will be set free. Her son listened to her story of his grandmother’s suffering and said: ‘Mom, she’s got to be released, I agree. But if I were to defy the court again, I could be thrown out of law school. Are you brave enough to try something really crazy?’
Gretchen Umlauf was not one to relish deeds of derring-do, nor did she want to imperil her son’s chances at law school, so she said: ‘We’ve got to give the sensible people here one last chance before we do anything drastic. Let’s tell Dr. Zorn about the straitjacket. He’s on our side.’ They asked for an appointment, which he granted, but reluctantly, because he knew there was little he could do to help.
‘Dr. Zorn, are you aware that my mother-in-law is being brutalized on your third floor?’ Her report of what she had seen angered Andy, and he started to reach for the phone to order Nurse Grimes to stop such abuse but stopped himself in time. He was all too aware that until the court came to a decision he could not interfere in the proper medical treatment of Mrs. Umlauf, and he knew medical testimony in court would probably support what Nurse Grimes had done as legitimate procedure when dealing with an uncooperative patient.
He said wearily: ‘Come back in one hour. I’ll discuss this with my staff,’ but as they departed, young Mrs. Umlauf warned: ‘If you don’t act, we’ll have to,’ and from that resolve she did not waver during the hour they waited.
Zorn asked Krenek and Varney if they had been aware that grave abuses had occurred on floor three, and they had to confess that yes, they’d heard that the straitjacket had been used. When he stormed: ‘Why didn’t you discipline Nurse Grimes?’ Nora replied in a low voice: ‘Because one of my girls saw her and Hasslebrook having dinner the other night. You even touch Mrs. Umlauf and you’ll cause an even bigger ruckus. Can you imagine the publicity if they present her as the defender of human life and you as the unfeeling destroyer?’
A sickly chill came over Andy, for once again he was trapped in the legal system, and once more he was powerless to defend himself or do the right thing for others. He knew he was as shackled as poor Mrs. Umlauf had been, and there was not a damned thing he could do about it. In fierce frustration he told Nora: ‘Call in the Umlaufs,’ and when mother and son sat before him he had to tell them the shameful news: ‘I’m powerless. Your mother is no longer in our care. Our hands are tied until the court comes to a decision.’
Silence fell, and then young Umlauf asked quietly: ‘Would you look the other way if Mother and I took matters into our own hands?’
Andy did not reply, for he recognized this as a lure to trap him into defending euthanasia, a step he could not take as a medical man who had taken an oath to defend life at all stages and at all costs. But as the Umlaufs watched him fixedly he gradually saw quite clearly and unequivocally the path that as a human being he must take. Looking straight into the eyes of first the mother and then the son he gritted his teeth, said nothing and, turning his head sharply, looked out the window. They understood this, rightly, to mean that they had his tacit support, that he would indeed look the other way. As Andy watched the resolute pair leave his office, he wished them well.
At a quarter to two that night, Gretchen Umlauf, in a flowing white gown lent her by a friend at the Palms, was led by her son along a route arranged by the same friend. Easing her quietly into the corridor, Victor watched his mother make her way silently to Room 312, her mother-in-law’s prison. Protected from view and in the dim blue light used to illuminate hospital rooms with an almost mystical glow, Gretchen kissed the comatose old woman, then quickly removed one after another of the life-support systems. Finally, with a mighty pull, she ripped out all the electrical attachments so they could not be quickly reinstalled. With alarms sounding throughout the Health building. Gretchen quietly edged her way back to where her son waited. They had broken the law, but Berta Umlauf, who had unsuccessfully battled the medical profession, the legal eagles, Hasslebrook’s movement and the entire state of Florida, finally won the right to die with dignity.
Dr. Zorn and Betsy wanted to hold their wedding at the Palms, for this was where th
So Betsy surrendered, and Zorn, though he preferred to have the celebration at the Palms, complied with Father Cawthorn’s request. But when Cawthorn also nominated the clergyman who would perform the marriage service, a well-known Baptist minister named Cawthorn, he ran into a wall. Betsy said: ‘I want to be married by the minister who gave me real spiritual assistance during my recuperation. So don’t argue, Father, I insist.’
He withdrew the nomination of his distant cousin Cawthorn, telling his relatives: ‘I got my way on the church, let her have her way on the minister,’ but when those in the community learned that the minister Betsy preferred was a woman, Reverend Helen Quade, many exploded. The Southern churches had not been willing to welcome women in the clergy—‘What on earth do you call them? Clergy women? That’s pretty repulsive—and to have one, a stranger to boot, officiating at a prominent society wedding was deplorable.
Betsy was as strong-willed as anyone in her family, but before forcing the issue she had to be sure that Reverend Quade was willing to participate in what might become a ticklish or even unpleasant family dispute. So she went to Mrs. Quade and asked: ‘Would you be willing to go to Chattanooga to officiate at our wedding?’
‘I’d be honored. I’m so happy for you and Andy.’
‘Even if it might mean some protest from the conservative wing—against a woman priest?’