So I called my mother, and I cried, and I asked her to come.

She did not hesitate for even a second.

“Focus on your career, Laura,” she told me, in the warm, certain voice she had used to steady me my entire life.

“I’ll take care of my granddaughter.”

I remember the flood of relief I felt, the way a drowning person feels relief at a rope, and I remember that my relief was entirely about me — about my launch, my career, my rescued schedule.

I did not think, even once, about what I was actually asking.