In the dim­ly lit ICU, Char­lotte remained haunt­ed by guilt over her role in Nor­ma’s heart attack, despite Sain­t’s reas­sur­ances about the fac­tors that con­tributed to her grand­moth­er’s con­di­tion. She sat on a bench, her atten­tion cap­tured by a relent­less stream of news reports: tales of crime and dis­as­ter, a stark con­trast to the per­son­al grief encas­ing her.

Beside her, Mrs. Mey­er tend­ed to Sam­my, ensur­ing his coat did not soil her pris­tine dress. Saint was inti­mate­ly famil­iar with the room, a space where life and death inter­twined, where sto­ries often reached their trag­ic con­clu­sions. As the ear­ly hours of the morn­ing crept by, a nurse appeared, her demeanor sug­gest­ing it was time for reflec­tion and farewells. Saint sensed the nurse’s silent acknowl­edg­ment of the momen­t’s weight with­out the need for words.

Tak­ing a seat next to Nor­ma, Saint found her­self alone with the beep­ing machines and the fad­ing rhythm of her grand­moth­er’s once-ener­getic heart. She focused on the clut­ter of med­ical equip­ment around her, recall­ing a past moment when she des­per­ate­ly wished for some­one else’s life to be spared. Hold­ing Norma’s hand, mem­o­ries flood­ed back—her grand­moth­er’s com­fort­ing grasp dur­ing child­hood walks and shared mile­stones, moments now bit­ter­sweet with the under­stand­ing of their sig­nif­i­cance.

Saint spoke soft­ly, express­ing her promis­es to God and her com­mit­ment to kind­ness in life. She felt a deep con­nec­tion with her grand­moth­er while grap­pling with self-doubt about whether she had tru­ly lived up to the name “Saint.” Her thoughts wan­dered to the stark con­trast between bad mem­o­ries and the good ones that slipped away from con­scious­ness.

In a moment of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, she expressed her long­ing to share sim­ple joys with her grand­moth­er, like enjoy­ing ice cream togeth­er at Lacey’s, shar­ing dreams now shad­owed by grief. Saint leaned in clos­er, kiss­ing Norma’s cheek, a ges­ture under­scored by an apol­o­gy for any per­ceived short­com­ings. Tears streamed down her face, a trib­ute to the love they shared and a lament for what was slip­ping away. The emo­tion­al weight of the moment was heavy, a bit­ter­sweet farewell wrapped in love and long­ing .