On the other side, she was alive.

That is what she did.

It is staggering when stated plainly, without the mediation of literary convention or historical context.

She outlived conditions that killed three other people.

She maintained functional capacity — physically and psychologically — through what must have been among the most demanding years any person of her era and background had ever faced.

She found within herself, and within the environment she was placed in, what she needed to persist until rescue arrived.

The rescue did arrive.