Chapter 21 - AUDREY COMES HOME
Seven months after the kennel incident, Audrey came home.
Not cured.
Home.
Treatment had moved to an outpatient schedule after a strong partial response.
She still needed scans.
Still had fatigue.
Still feared recurrence.
Her hair was beginning to grow back in soft dark patches.
Nora touched it.
“Fuzzy.”
Audrey laughed.
“Thank you.”
Our city apartment became primary home.
The estate became occasional.
Why not return full time?
Audrey said:
“I want a place Theresa did not run.”
Fair.
We kept the estate.
No dramatic sale.
Family events continued without treating it as headquarters.
Then the first school morning.
Audrey was too tired to walk Nora all the way to the classroom.
She cried after the door closed.
“I can’t even take her to school.”
I said:
“You got her dressed.”
“Diane could do that.”
“You argued about socks.”
“That’s motherhood?”
“Yes.”
She laughed.
Then cried harder.
Recovery was not gratitude.
It contained anger at what illness took.
We let that exist.
Theresa had treated Audrey’s limitations as vacancy.
May you like
We learned to treat them as limitations.
A mother can need help without surrendering motherhood.
