And then, without any warning, David’s eyes filled with tears.

This grown man, this steady, unflappable doctor I had sat across from at dinner parties and holiday gatherings for a decade, stood in the middle of that bright busy corridor and let his eyes fill and spill over in front of everyone, and he said the words that ended one version of my life and began another.

I have thought many times about how much those few words cost David to say, and about the particular courage it took.

He was Marcus’s friend.