“That we wait.”
She closed the notepad.
“If it’s benign, we discuss follow-up.”
She took a breath.
“If it isn’t, we discuss what comes next.”
Dad was standing in the doorway.simo
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
Mom looked at him.
“I would rather know what I don’t know than have everyone whispering around me.”
That afternoon, Aunt Linda found me making soup.
She was holding the old photograph.
“I remember this day.”
I looked at Grandma standing between her daughters.
“Was it soon after her surgery?”
“Several months.”
Linda smiled.
“She almost refused to take this picture.”
“Because of the mastectomy?”
“No.”
I looked at her.
“Because Cindy kept telling her to move over.”
I laughed.
Later, Linda carried the photograph upstairs.
Mom was awake.
“You know what I remember about this?”
Mom studied the picture.
“What?”
“You bossing everybody around.”
