I can imagine her in the hospital, stretched on the hard cot surrounded by gauze filament dividers. I can imagine because she had been there before. Years ago she fell, broke her hip. Years before that, cancer and surgery. Years before that I wasn't born but I've heard tell. She survives, she carries on. She used to say, Pull yourself up by your boot straps. She used to say, A smile never hurt anybody. She used to say, You're the special one. I can't imagine her departing. I can't see the world without her. I hold that she will live.