The life that Lizzie described, working at the hospital in the Presidio, sounded like heaven to her, no matter how injured her patients were. At least Lizzie and Alex had some chance to save them. Audrey knew that in the long run she had no chance at all to save her mother. She had always known that, but facing it now day by day, hour by hour, was a harsh dose of reality for her. Lizzie suspected it from what she didn’t say, and admired her for her strength and courage. However different their lives were, she knew it would have been agony to watch her mother waste away with a debilitating illness. Ellen had been ill for seven years now, most of Audrey’s adult life. She was twenty-two years old.

Alex was on regular duty in the psychiatric ward at the Presidio hospital by then, and loved the work, although it was challenging and often depressing. She brought a positive, cheerful attitude to it, and the men loved her, not just for her striking beauty, but for her compassion and how kind she was to them. She often achieved results with them that the doctors and other nurses couldn’t. She had endless patience.

From little bits and snippets of things that slipped into Alex’s conversation from time to time, Lizzie had begun to suspect that Alex’s life at home was very different from the other nurses and people she lived with now. She accidentally admitted to Lizzie once, after a second glass of wine on a night out together, that she had been a debutante, and Lizzie shared with Audrey that she suspected Alex might be from a fancy family in New York, and that she had grown up in luxurious circumstances.

Compared to even Lizzie’s very solid, educated, medical family in Boston, Alex seemed to have led a life that none of them even dreamed of, but she was careful not to talk about it, and never boasted or showed off. Alex was modest, simple, warm, and genuine in every way, and had loaned money to some of the other nurses occasionally, when they were short on cash before payday. Lizzie was sorry that Audrey still hadn’t met her and hoped she would one day. Audrey was still her best friend, but she had grown very fond of Alex, and respected her.