The doctors kept her sedated the
rest of that day and night to rest.
They told all of us to go home.
“She’s stable,” they said. “There’s
nothing you can do here. Go home
and sleep.” So we did.
I went back first thing the next
morning to be with my mother in
her room and wait for her to wake
up. When I walked in she was still
asleep. The back of her head was
bandaged. She had stitches in her
face and gauze covering her nose
and her left eye. She looked frail
and weak, tired, one of the few
times in my life I’d ever seen her
look that way.