And the doctor said: “Yes.”

There was a stretch of quiet in that room then.

Pilar had gone out at some point and come back in and was standing at the end of the bed with her arms folded, not pretending to be busy, which I appreciated more than I can say.

Something came up in my chest that was not sorrow and not shock, and it pushed both of those out of the way.

I would like to be able to tell you it was fury, because fury is a respectable thing for a woman to feel in that situation, and because every person who has heard this story has assumed it was fury.