“I was surprised to learn she died of malnutrition.” Dr. Benton seems startled. “Zora didn’t die of malnutrition,” he says indignantly. “Where did you get that story from? She had a stroke and she died in the welfare home.” He seems particularly upset, distressed, but sits back reflectively in his chair: “She was an incredible woman,” he muses. “Sometimes when I closed my office, I’d go by her house and just talk to her for an hour or two. She was a well-read, well-traveled woman and always had her own ideas about what was going on . . .”
