Then we were both crying and laughing at the same time, sitting together on the hospital bed like the whole impossible morning had finally become too much to process any other way.
Patricia smiled from the doorway.
“She does have a point.”
Then she held up the IV supplies.
“And I would really like to finish at least one thing I started today.”
Mom wiped her eyes.
Then she stretched out her left arm.
The little blue flower faced upward.
For the first time in thirty years, it wasn’t something she was trying to hide.
“All right,” she said.
“Let’s get this surgery over with before this hospital discovers another family secret.”
And as Patricia reached for her wrist, I looked at that tiny blue flower differently than I ever had before.
