Mostly, though, I prayed for William. Not for him to live or to die, but to be without pain throughout his body. And I prayed for his suffering heart. He didn’t ask to be left behind or to live with someone he didn’t know. He didn’t ask to be neglected or forgotten or discarded or left off in some strange place when he got old. He didn’t ask for the pain in his body, the way his teeth were rotting, the way his hips ached so much he couldn’t sit down. He didn’t ask for any of it.
