“I was thinking to myself, ‘If this was Tess, how would you feel right now, family?’” She firmly believed that Tess still had the potential to recover, to become a loving mother to her son. Patricia was still showing her grandson family pictures, coaching him to say “Mama” when she pointed to Tess. But new custody issues were emerging that Patricia kept secret from Tess—and she knew that Tess could die before they were resolved. She had already chosen the spot where she would sprinkle her daughter’s ashes if it came to that: at a confluence of the Cape Fear River and the ocean where they had
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