托福阅读材料之昏迷42年家人坚守承诺不离不弃

A woman who lived in a coma for 42 years, meticulously cared for by her family, died Wednesday in her home in Miami Gardens, Fla., the Miami Herald reported.

根据《迈阿密先驱报》的报道，一位昏迷长达42年的女性21日在位于迈阿密花园的家中辞世，终年59岁。在她昏迷的这么多年中，家人一直不离不弃悉心照料。

Edwarda O’Bara was a 16-year-old high school student in 1970 when she became sick from her diabetes medication and slipped into a diabetic coma.

1970年，当时16岁的爱德华达·欧贝拉还是个高中学生，因为糖尿病接受药物治疗，失去知觉陷入了昏迷，医学上称为糖尿病昏迷症。

According to the Herald, just before she lost consciousness, Edwarda asked her mother, Kaye O’Bara, to never leave her side, and her family never did.

《迈阿密先驱报》报道称，在她失去知觉前对母亲凯伊说的一句话，是让母亲不要丢下她。而在她昏迷的42年中，她的家人一直坚守当初的承诺。

Edwarda’s father, Joe O’Bara, and Kaye took care of their daughter — reading to her, playing her music, making sure she was turned every two hours, bathed, given insulin and given nourishment through a feeding tube — until their deaths in 1976 and 2008, respectively. After that, Edwarda’s sister Colleen O’Bara took over.

爱德华达的父亲乔和母亲凯伊一直悉心照顾女儿，读书给她听，为她弹奏音乐，每隔两小时帮她翻一次身，为她洗澡，为她注射胰岛素，用食管给她喂食，两位老人一直坚持做这些直到两人相继去世：1976年父亲乔因心脏病去世，2008年母亲凯伊去世。母亲去世后，妹妹科林恩接棒继续照顾她。

Edwarda O’Bara spent more than four decades in a coma, but her family’s unending care for her became a story told across the world.

爱德华达昏迷了40多年，而她的家人不离不弃的悉心照料也让她的故事传遍了世界。

And visitors from across the world traveled to the Miami Gardens home, every year, sometimes appearing at the doorstep on random days, other times for Edwarda’s yearly birthday party, a boisterous affair with decorations, balloons and cake.

每年都会有从世界各地来的人前往迈阿密花园拜访他们。有些人可能随时来，有一些人则会赶在每年爱德华达的生日聚会来。每年的生日聚会人们都会帮忙装饰，气球和蛋糕给家里带来欢乐的气氛。

Through it all, Edwarda remained in a coma. But to her family and followers she remained vibrantly alive. Colleen O’Bara described her as “the best sister in the whole wide world.”

虽然这些年爱德华达一直处于昏迷状态。但对她的家人和关注她的人来说，她一直都在充满活力的生活着。妹妹科林恩描述她是“这个世界上的姐妹”。

“She taught me so much, and I’m talking about now, after she was in the coma,” Colleen O’Bara said. “She taught me so much about unconditional love that I couldn’t say I had it before. She taught me about patience, that I didn’t have before. I learned so much from taking care of my sister. It’s like I grew up overnight.”

科林恩这样说道：“她教给了我很多，我指的是特别在她昏迷之后。她教会我要无条件地付出爱，这些我以前真的都没有做到；她教会我以前所没有的耐心。在照顾姐姐的这些年里我学到了很多，就算是一夜之间长大了一样。”

In an announcement of Edwarda's death posted Thursday on a website dedicated to her, Colleen O'Bara wrote: "Yesterday while taking care of Edwarda I noticed her looking directly at me and gave me the biggest smile I had ever seen. She then closed her eyes and joined my Mom in Heaven."

周四科林恩将爱德华达去世的消息公布在专门为她设立的网站上，她在公告中写到：“昨天在照顾爱德华达的时候，我注意到她直直的看着我然后给了我一个大大的微笑，这是我见过她笑得最开心的一次。然后她闭上眼睛，去天堂和我的母亲相会了。”