Chapter 442 Lori's Wonder:>63

• When he came back he was silent, drawn; he looked weary, beat-down, and older than his years, but even after travelling all the way from England, he still he carried Mom up to her room, gently tucked her in and made her comfortable, checked her meds, and sat next to her holding her hand, just like Daddy used to. When I looked in on them a little later, they were both fast asleep, still holding hands, so I tip-toed away.
• I'd had this long speech ready about why it had to take him eight years to come home, didn't he know it was too late now, blah-blah-blah, but Mom kind of defused that; while he was saying his goodbye, she gave me the rundown on what it was like for him as a medical student in Britain.
• The last eight years hadn't been any stroll through the park for him, and if I'd ever once relented and actually spoken to him, I'd have learned for myself just how tough it was on him; he was a junior doctor, which meant they worked him like a dray-horse, day in and day out; it was a test of commitment and character, and he endured five years of that, not counting his first year as a lowly medical student; that was why Mom had refused to tell him what was happening at home; he'd worked too hard, and given too much, to lose it all. He was in the middle of his second year training to be a cardiologist when we got the news about Mom, and then lost Daddy a year later.