“Your father was scared of the same thing,” I said. “That’s why he did all this.”
“He should have told you.”
“Yes,” I said. “He should have. And you should have asked me what I wanted, instead of telling me. And your brother should have told me about the safe. And I should have gone to a doctor six months ago instead of buying bigger dresses.”
I looked around the table at my children.
“This family loves each other so much we’d rather lie than see each other hurt,” I said. “And it nearly killed me.”
Nobody argued.
I made decisions that afternoon. My own.
I asked Mr. Fisk to pay the hospital bills that Medicare and my supplement didn’t cover. Four thousand two hundred and eighteen dollars and forty cents. Thomas had been worried about that bill for two weeks.Find Hospitals
I asked him to set aside money for a home health aide, three mornings a week, until I was fully strong again. A woman Sarah knew, named Lorraine, who’d taken care of Sarah’s mother.
