It is making another appointment.
It is preparing for another difficult day.
It is finding another specialist.
It is making another phone call.
It is managing another expense.
It is sitting quietly beside someone when there is nothing meaningful to say.
It is doing the things that need to be done even when you are emotionally depleted.
And it is doing them again.
David's decision to stay was therefore not something that happened once.
He made that decision repeatedly.
Every day.
That is perhaps the most remarkable part.
The Years That Followed
2018 eventually became 2019.
Then 2020.
Then 2021.
Then another year.
And another.
The calendar moved forward even though David and Bruna's circumstances remained profoundly changed.
For many people, time is expected to heal wounds.
But some situations do not have a clean healing process.
Time does not necessarily restore the life that existed before a devastating medical event.
Instead, people learn how to live with what happened.
The emergency becomes a date on the calendar.
The first year becomes the second.
The second becomes the third.
The world keeps moving.
Friends grow older.
Families change.