Wouldn’t you know it? After end-of-life conversations with parents and siblings, with a doctor and a priest and nurses, after discussing life and the afterlife, the existence of God, burial rites and family history, Vanessa’s cancer went into remission. Spending her final night – this time – in the hospital, Vanessa shared a conversation with […]
He remembered picking her up–Vanessa, a toddler–and carrying her, and she squirmed like crazy, wanting down. He put her down and watched her wobble, wearing that determined, toddler-hell-bent-on-walking look. He remembered her hitting the dirt, looking up, checking with him, and he looked down and said, “You’re okay. It’s just a fall. You wanted to […]
“She’s not a little girl anymore. You know that. I know that. When I look at her, lying in a hospital bed, I want to open a vein and say, ‘Vanessa, take my life. I don’t want it anymore, and I want you to have one, and if that’s all I can do for you, […]
Lauren Hoffman was looking out a window, rolling her head, and she turned and walked over to her husband and took a stool next to him and leaned over and bumped his shoulder with hers and folded her hands in front of herself and looked at her son. “I’m sorry,” Ethan,” she said. Her neck […]