No transplant story could transform grief into something painless or fair.

But it was also the day I discovered that Hannah had kept part of her life alive beyond my fear, beyond my plans, beyond the hospital room where I’d spent so many nights begging for one more morning.

The secret Kenneth carried had hurt me.

We had needed time to mend what it broke.

The truth Hannah left behind was simpler: she wanted her life, however short it might be, to mean kindness on her own terms.

I closed the notebook and looked at her smiling face in the photograph.