And you cannot demand access to the most guarded room in a person’s soul; you cannot schedule it on a care plan for a Tuesday.

All you can do is become, slowly, over months, someone safe enough that they might one day open the door themselves, from the inside — and then wait, without pushing, for as long as it takes, understanding that they may never open it at all, and that this too would be their right.

I did not earn Edith’s back.

You don’t earn a thing like that.

I only made myself safe, and left the door alone, and one rainy morning in February she opened it herself.