Draw on your inner strength. Remember, you can be your own worst enemy—or your best friend. It’s up to you. And also this: what you can’t change, you must endure.’ Urmila continued weeping, but I stopped and stared at my mother. She stood tall and regal, suddenly unfamiliar, like a queen out of a tale, and looked at me gravely. I knew it was mostly to me that she’d spoken. Endure. A word solid as a tree trunk. A good word upon which to build a life, I thought. I would learn it, and it would help me through dark times.
