Chapter 6 - What She Left Behind
Denise and Aaron followed the nurse down the hall. Nathaniel stayed beside me.
For a moment, neither of us said anything. Then I said, "I'm still angry with you."
"I know."
"You kept something enormous from me."
"I know."
"I don't know if I'd have made the same choice you did. But I understand why you made it."
His eyes filled again. That was as close to forgiveness as I could manage that day.
I took his hand. Together we walked back toward Claire's room.
It was empty now.
A few hours earlier, I'd followed my daughter down a hospital hallway believing that everything about her life was ending. But Claire had understood something I hadn't. She couldn't control what was happening to her body. She could still decide what she left behind when it was over.
Somewhere in that hospital, Priya was waking up. Soon her mother would sit beside her bed and start making the same kind of plans I'd made for Claire, right up until the very end — plans for going home.
Losing my daughter didn't get easier because another girl survived. It never would.
But I finally understood what Claire had been trying to leave me. Not a reason for her death. Something to hold onto after it.
May you like
She couldn't come home with me.
So instead, she helped another daughter go home with hers.
