The sound of a siren and the flashing of red and blue lights saved Eddie from collapsing.  Maybe they would make it!  Maybe they would disappoint the crowd outside the window.

It was only minutes before they arrived at the hospital.As Eddie watched the paramedics prepare to unload Janan's stretcher, he saw a priest walking out of the emergency room doors.

An idea burned in Eddie's mind. "Wait!  Sir!" Eddie hailed the priest as he ran toward him. "Wait.  Please!"  The old priest looked up, startled by the urgency in Eddie's bloodshot eyes. "Please.  You've got to marry us," Eddie said, pointing at Janan's stretcher.  "She's dying.  You've got to marry us."

The old priest seemed to be made of stone.  Eddie took him by the arm and started after Janan and the paramedics.  "Thank you," Eddie said.  "Thank you."  The white haired priest followed.

Eddie leaned over and whispered into Janan's ear.  "Janan, you have to marry me.  Just in case.  That would make me the next of kin.  Authority to have you frozen.  Say yes, Janan.  Tell the priest you want to marry me."Janan lay lifeless on the stretcher. The priest looked at Eddie.  "I'm sorry, Son.  If she's unconscious, I can't marry you.  She has to consent." The paramedics began to push the stretcher toward the emergency room doors.

"Wait!"  Eddie held onto the stretcher, panic in his eyes. "Son," said the white haired priest as he laid a fatherly hand on Eddie's shoulder, "let them take her to emergency.  I'll marry you later, if she lives."

"But what if she dies?" "If she dies, the marriage won't be necessary."

"No, you don't understand."  It took all of Eddie's will to keep his voice respectful.  Eddie turned back to Janan.  Leaning over the stretcher, he tried again.  "Janan.  I love you.  You have to tell the priest you'll marry me.  Please, Janan.  Tell him.  Please."Janan barely opened her eyes.  Her lips trembled as she tried to form words.  It was almost inaudible, but Janan managed two words:  "Yes, Eddie."

Nearly twenty four hours later, Walt Hamilton, president of the California Life Extension Foundation, walked into the reception area adjoining the operating room inside the Foundation's facility.  Eddie stood, looking anxious, when he saw his friend enter.  Walt was dressed in hospital greens.

Walt sat down and placed a hand on Eddie's shoulder.  "If you hadn't been with her, and if you hadn't gotten that priest to marry you, there wouldn't have been anything we could have done. Without the legal documents, our hands would have been tied." "Yeah," Eddie said, his voice as swollen as his eyes. "Walt, I want to make sure something like this never happens again."

"What do you have in mind? "I don't know.  But we've got to make sure, Walt." Walt nodded.  "I never could understand why Janan let her arrangements drop. Eddie took the gold medic alert bracelet from his pocket and held it in the palm of his hand.  "I asked her why," said Eddie, "just before the accident.  She said there just never was enough time."  Eddie's voice choked again.  "Now there really isn't."

Eddie laid the bouquet of red roses atop the dewar which had cradled Janan for almost a year.  "Well, Love," Eddie said with a sad smile, "it's our first anniversary." Reaching down, Eddie touched one of the roses.  "I miss you," he said, his lips trembling, "but better this way than to have lost you forever.  It was just a matter of minutes, you know."

Shifting his weight, Eddie waited for the lump in his throat to go down.  "I've set up a special fund.  We call it the Janan Fossbender Fund.  After you were suspended, I swore I would find a way to keep something like this from ever happening again."

"We," Eddie lost his voice for a second.  "We really go all out these days to be sure our members keep their arrangements current."