His knees shook and his breath came hard and the sweat stood out on his forehead — but he was on his feet, on his own, in front of all of them.

Douglas lost every bit of color.

“Since when can you stand?”

I have watched a great many people take their first hard steps back from a body that failed them, and I can tell you that the thing outsiders always want to do is help — to reach out, to lift, to spare the person the visible struggle.

It comes from love, mostly, and it is almost always wrong.

Because the struggle is not the tragedy.