A Truly Useful Introduction

To Continue…

Once they’ve returned to the states  Edward is called to face his family, and to deal with a deadly power struggle for control of the vast Eastman fortunes, precipitated in no small part by his marriage to Rachael. Edward refuses to not have Rachael with him at all times, and they travel together to the Newport, Rhode Island estate of the imposing Eastman family figurehead,  his elderly yet spry mother, long his staunchest supporter.

At the massive family estate in Newport R.I., Rachael wins over the matriarch’s heart and her complete confidence, an amazing feat in itself.  The changes Rachael has affected in Edward are obvious to his mother, and his newfound inner strength, calm, & seeming happiness is a surprise to his entire family.

Questions and challenges regarding Edward’s sanity and moral fiber are raised by certain relatives and their lawyers during an ongoing endeavor to wrest control of the immense wealth & power of the Eastman family estate.

In Edward’s long absence they’ve sought to discontinue using the Eastman Foundation for social work & education and to reinvest its entire assets into the defense & weapons technology industry, as well as supporting the careers of militaristic and authoritarian minded political forces.

These relatives know of Edward’s long history of tragic marriages, his reputation of being a social loner, and of being unpredictable & unorthodox – and they use it against him in a dramatic legal battle. Knowing nothing about Rachael’s illness, her intelligence, her ethics, or her amazing energy, Edward’s adversaries readily cast her as an opportunist and a usurper.

At this crucial point in their story, the first signs of Rachael’s serious illness begin to become apparent.  While on the East Coast Edward decides to bring in some of medicine’s top virologists to review Rachael’s case.  Department Heads from Harvard Medical and Johns-Hopkins all return the same troubling prognosis…incurable & inexorably fatal.

Frustrated by his seeming inability to save her, and angry at the continuing efforts to divert his potential role as ruling scion over the Eastman estate by staunch conservatives within his extended family, Edward wages an all out crusade against his antagonizing distant relations.

With the force of a lifetime of pent-up emotions, the inspiration and wisdom learned from his young wife, the help of a shrewd private detective and a prestigious lawyer who is a longtime family friend Edward goes into the federal courts of New York City to undermine all attempts to discredit him – and for the first time in his life actively assumes his destined role as leader of the Eastman family foundation.

When he defeats every legal challenge the depths of Edward’s love & admiration for Rachel come to the fore. He now realizes that from the first moment he met her that she was the true catalyst behind his winning back both his rightful role as head of the Eastman family, as well as reviving the health of his soul & destiny.

Edward and the now obviously exhausted Rachael finally return to their completed Hollister Ranch house in Santa Barbara. Here the two of them enjoy the last of a beautiful Indian Summer, inhabiting a postcard perfect pastoral scene, spending hours surfing, horse riding, flying kites, and just lazing on the beach building sand castles. It’s their first real time off from all the drama.

These are Rachael’s final days, and he senses it.  They talk about Edward’s upcoming work; and plan a new mission for the Eastman Foundation.  Rachael is his true muse, and between them, a far-reaching vision is born.

Then, months earlier than Edward expected, Rachael quietly dies in his arms in their splendid hilltop ranch house home.

Final Chapter – Epilogue

It’s two years later, and Edward is dedicating a new state-of-the-art children’s medical clinic in Bali.  We discover that Edward has used the Eastman Foundation, of which he is now the active director, to open a global network of children’s clinics, bringing top American doctors and medical equipment to the service of children in desperate need of complex surgical proce­dures.  And all of it free to those in need.

The one hundred children’s clinics he has built share the same name; The Beautiful Day Children’s Clinic. Edward Eastman is now a dramatically changed man, a spiritually fulfilled human being, and his late wife lives on, surviving through this work.

Later that evening Edward hosts a large dinner party at a major resort for his Bali Children’s Clinic Administrators and the press. In the mingling crowd appears an attractive woman in her mid-thirties, apparently crashing the party.

When she finally bumps into Edward she doesn’t know who he is, or that he’s the principal founder of the project, but in making small talk mentions seeing a longboard on a wonderfully restored classic Land Rover parked out front.

Upon finding out that it’s actually Edward’s board & Rover she offers a big smile, tells him she surfs too, also owns the very same year & model classic Rover back home, and explains she’s an Australian pediatrician on a long holiday who’d caught word of the new clinic and has shown despite being uninvited to perhaps offer her help.

She asks Edward if he knows any of the people in charge, or to whom she might speak with. Finally she introduces herself, and when she reveals her name is Dr. Rachael Newhope he just stares at her, transfixed in smiling, silent disbelief.

He tells her who he is, and in the following momentary awkward pause, the implied door to a romantic fate between the two doctors opens.  Now no stranger to the concept of mystic provenance, for Edward it’s like some sort of deja vu replay of the night he and  Rachael first met at his old LA clinic.

Listening yet mentally transfixed he momentarily hears her speaking as if from a nebulous distance.

She casually mentions something about the Buddhist concept of reincarnation, and the power of love to return to our lives as unexpectedly as it can depart, explaining that’s why she loves Asia, loves being a doctor, and her work healing the innocent whose lives have been hurt by no fault of their own.

Smiling silently, for Edward the crowd in the room seemed to fade into the background, as if both he and this Australian doctor were suddenly the only people in the room.

“Did I say something to disturb you Dr. Eastman?” she asked, noting his penetrating gaze.

“Why yes Dr. Newhope”, said Edward, now fully present.  “And in the most delightfully charming way.”