I slave away caring for this girl all evening and this is how she repays me — why does a frail old mother deserve this?”
As the crew fitted the collar around my neck and lifted me, I found Wanda’s eyes.
They went from the blood on the tiles, to Marlene’s performance, to my face.
She said nothing to my mother-in-law.
Instead she crouched, picked up the scattered pharmacy bag with Marlene’s pills in it, and tucked it gently under my trembling fingers.
“Don’t you worry, Lorna,” she whispered, close to my ear.
“When you’re stronger, we’ll sort all of this out.”
I would think about that small act many times in the weeks to come — that the only person in that hallway who treated me like a human being was a woman who owed me nothing at all.
Chapter 5 — The Third Attempt
In the ER, the triage nurse asked for an emergency contact, and I gave her Shane’s number.