He thought of all the tasks that lay ahead. Give me strength, O Lord, to face this trial. He turned over carefully, sat up, placed his feet on the floor and rocked himself forward several times, building the momentum to stand. This was old age: all these movements one had once taken for granted—the simple act of rising from a bed, for example—that now required a precise sequence of planned manoeuvres. At the third attempt he gained his feet and walked stiffly the short distance to the desk.
