Nineteen Minutes

by Jodi Picoult

And that was the greatest heartbreak of all—no matter how spectacular we want our children to be, no matter how perfect we pretend they are, they are bound to disappoint. As it turns out, kids are more like us than we think: damaged, through and through.

“You’ve never gone down the street and had someone cross it just because you’re black. You’ve never had someone look at you with disgust because you’re holding a baby and you forgot to put on your wedding ring. You want to do something about it—take action, scream at them, tell them they’re idiots—but you can’t. Being on the fringe is the most disempowering feeling, Jordan. You get so used to the world being a certain way, there seems to be no escape from it.”

“You said that Peter was suffering from suicide ideation.” “Yes.” “So he wanted to kill himself?” “Yes. That’s very common for patients with PTSD.”