“Medicine,” she muttered in a voice he could barely hear. He helped her take it and swallow enough water to get it down, then waited for it to take effect, telling her twice more that he loved her while she slowly drifted into oblivion, and he wondered if she would ever regain consciousness. He was glad for what they’d been able to say to each other but heartbroken and shocked to even consider that this could really be the end. When he knew she was sleeping deeply, he climbed carefully onto the bed beside her, pressed his face into her hair where it was splayed over the pillow, and cried like a lost and frightened child.

Oliver and Viola found him there when they came to check on Kat, and Henry was glad at least that these good people loved him enough that he didn’t feel the need for embarrassment at being caught in such an emotional state. They each kissed his head and whispered words of comfort to him as if he were a child—their child—and he wished he could remember his own mother ever having done the same. Oliver sat in a chair on one side of the bed, keeping a hand on Henry’s shoulder as if to just silently let him know he was there. Viola sat on the other side of the bed, crying silent tears and touching her daughter’s face and hair while she slept.

A while later the doctor arrived and they all moved away so that he could examine Kat. He listened to her heart, checked the pulse in her wrists and ankles, opened her eyelids briefly, then put a hand on her forehead that was more a gesture of concern than any part of the medical evaluation. He then turned to face the husband and parents of his patient and said with compassion, “I would be surprised if she makes it through the night.” Viola cried out before putting her hand over her mouth to suppress the sound. Oliver teetered slightly until Henry put an arm around his father-in-law’s shoulders to help steady him. “I would recommend,” Dr. Cowell went on, “saying your good-byes. Even if she is not conscious, I strongly believe it’s important for loved ones to speak what they feel they need to say. And in my own personal opinion, I think it’s highly likely that in some spiritual way she will hear you.”