Last Dance, Last Chance

children. They wouldn’t be living with her when she went home, and the house would seem so empty without them, and without Anthony—or rather the hopes she had always had to have him be a real dad and a real husband.
    It seemed such a ridiculous situation to anyone who knew Debbie Pignataro and her abiding love for her two children, but for now Ralph and Lauren were ordered to stay with Carmine and his wife. Still, in October 1999, Debbie believed that they would be allowed to come home to her if she could only recover enough to take care of them. Surely the CPS investigation would be over soon.
    She could not have been more wrong.
    But, for the moment in October, Debbie’s biggest hurdle was trying to figure out a way she could go home and continue convalescing there. She had finally gathered the emotional strength to tell Anthony not to visit her any longer. He certainly wouldn’t be there at home, and she knew in her heart that even if he was, he wouldn’t take care of her. Beyond that, she had begun to accept that it was indeed Anthony who had fed her the poison that had almost killed her and had left her in the condition she was in. She didn’t want to be around him any more.
    So, just before Halloween 1999, Debbie was virtually helpless, and no one knew how far she would come back or whether she would ever improve beyond this point. After twenty-six years, Caroline asked to be laid off her job at Krasner’s department store so she could move in and take care of Debbie. But they still needed one other person.
    “I’ll take care of you,” Shelly Palombaro said firmly.
    “You can’t, Shelly,” Debbie protested. “You’ve got a husband and a family, and you work all day. There’s no way you could take care of me, too.”
    “Yes, I can. And I will.”
    Porches and windows were decorated with jack-o’-lanterns, and the air smelled of smoke rather than the flowers of summer, as Debbie was driven down her street for the first time in two and a half months.
    “I arrived to an empty house,” Debbie said, remembering how strange it seemed. The hospital bed took up most of the living room. Shelly and Caroline got Debbie settled in her wheelchair, combed her hair, and fixed her makeup. She hadn’t told Ralph and Lauren that she was coming home for fear something might happen to delay her homecoming.
    “They were at Carmine’s house, and we wanted to surprise them, Debbie said. “Carmine and Patti made up this story about having to stop by our house to pick up some of Ralph’s football equipment.
    “When they arrived, I was sitting in the wheelchair, and they were so happy. Mom was home! No matter what condition I was in. They were just so happy that I was home.”
     
    Shelly had promised to take care of Debbie, and she did. For six months, Shelly arrived at Debbie’s house every morning at 6 A.M. “She got me dressed, did my hair, put on makeup…She came back every four hours to help me,” Debbie said.
    “I brushed your teeth for a long time, too,” Shelly reminded her, laughing. “You couldn’t hold a toothbrush.”
    When Debbie first came home, her physical therapist had her crawl up the stairs on her hands and knees. She made it, but then she didn’t know how to get down, and neither did the therapist. Shelly was irate, and she demanded that Debbie be assigned another therapist. She got someone whose approach was calmer and more in keeping with her physical capabilities.
    But upstairs was out of the question. Debbie’s whole world was the living room/dining room, the kitchen, and the little downstairs bathroom. Although Caroline Rago had given up her home and her job to move in with Debbie, there were still many things she was hesitant to do. Shelly helped Debbie with the most intimate chores—things that nurses do routinely. When Debbie was embarrassed, Shelly taught her how to laugh instead. Sometimes the two of them went into hysterical giggles.
    Without Shelly, Debbie would have been lost. She wasn’t exactly a quadriplegic, but neither her arms nor her legs worked very well. They were numb and unpredictable.
    “One time, I thought I had Debbie safe, standing in front of her kitchen sink with her braces on, and I thought she could hold on,” Shelly said. “I turned my back for a moment, and she fell right over backward. I felt terrible.”
    Shelly gave the intramuscular shots that Debbie needed. But once Shelly had to be away for four days, and Caroline had to do it. She