A Brief History of Time Page #5

---

All they could do...

was arrange

the particles in families...

like in botany.

In cosmology,

on the other hand...

there was

a well-defined theory...

Einstein's general theory

of relativity.

It was a very cold year...

and the ice

on Verulamium Pond...

it was frozen there...

and we all went skating.

And Stephen managed

to skate fairly well...

but then, he and I

were close together.

He wasn't skating

in a very advanced way...

but nor was I,

if it comes to that.

He fell...

and he couldn't get up.

So I took him to a caf

to warm up...

and he told me then

all about it.

And it was diagnosed.

I insisted on going

to see his doctor...

because it seemed to me

however long you're going to live...

there's probably something

someone can do about it...

at least anyhow to make

things easier for people.

I won't mention

the doctor's name...

but I got to see him

at the London Clinic.

He was rather surprised that I should

bother to come 'round to see him.

After all, I was only

Stephen's mother.

He was quite nice. He agreed

to see me in a rather grand way.

And he said,

"Yes, it's all very sad.

Brilliant young man cut off

in the prime of his youth."

But of course I said,

"What can we do?"

What can we do to sort of...

Can we get physiotherapy?

"Can we get anything like that

that will help in any way?"

He said, "Well, actually, no."

There's nothing I can do, really.

More or less, that's it."

Shortly after my 21st birthday...

I went into hospital for tests.

They took a muscle sample

from my arm...

stuck electrodes into me...

and injected some radiopaque

fluid into my spine...

and watched it going

up and down with X-rays...

as they tilted the bed.

I was diagnosed as having ALS...

amyotrophic lateral sclerosis...

or motor neuron disease,

as it is also known.

The doctors

could offer no cure...

and gave me 21/2 years to live.

I went into the graduates'

common room...

looking, really, for someone

to have lunch with.

There was nobody around that

I particularly wished to have lunch with...

and then Stephen walked

through the door.

I don't know what he was doing at Oxford.

I've certainly forgotten now.

And so Stephen

generously went off...

to buy the drinks...

and brought them

and put them on the table.

And as he put his pint

of beer down...

he spilled it.

I sort of said genially...

"Oh, heavens.

Drinking at this time of day!"

He then told me he'd been

in Addenbrooke's for three weeks...

and they'd done

a whole series of tests...

and they'd decided...

what was wrong with him.

And he told me

very straight and flat...

that he was gradually

going to lose...

the use of his body...

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes