Thursday, August 1st, 2013 08:49:31

One Day at a Time

It’s been a strange week. My sister and I passed the coursework and pool portion for open-water scuba diving, my son turned 12, and my mother ended up in ICU. You can plan as much as you like, but oftentimes life happens — and not as you might have planned.

The rhythmic sound of the ventilator is comforting rather than frightening, as I had thought it would be. Its steady pace, much faster than my normal breathing rate, is soothing, possibly reminiscent of the maternal heartbeat that I heard in utero. As it works to fill my mother’s lungs with oxygen, her chest rises and falls.