V. is extremely ill – a cardiac arrest in fact; she is unconscious in the ICU unit, and we don't know whether she will recover.
She has been, as it happens, ready for this – in fact she has had the most direct and unflinching ability to look at her condition and possible problems of practically anyone I've ever met.
On that somewhat chilly but completely comfortable plane where she and I could talk with perfect clarity about the possibilities of illness and death, I can state with complete assurance: she is ready for this, as much as any human being could be; it is not a shock, it is not a horror, it is just a thing; and in fact a thing that is not even terribly important, and is not as strong as she is herself.
Concern for her husband, who is not prepared for her to die, is another matter entirely – and I know that he has been her chief worry for some time now – but, in and of herself, she is simply ready for this.
However, frankly – and I am perfectly willing for this to stand in for a prayer, to anyone who will listen – I would prefer that she recover, something which I know she would also prefer.
And – if I can negotiate for even more than that: that she become well.
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