What I offered Edith, entirely by accident, was the one thing no one else was offering: an interaction with no ask in it at all.

I did not need her to bathe.

I did not need her to be easy.

I did not need her story, or her cooperation, or her scar, or anything else she had.

I brought her coffee because I liked her company, and I did the crossword with her because it was the best part of my shift, and that was the whole of it, and she could feel that it was the whole of it.

I have come to believe this is the rarest gift one person can give another, and that we badly undervalue it: attention with no agenda attached.