CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX The First Visitor Liz is being moved out of the ICU and into a private room. Monica cries when she hears the news. Julia wipes at her nose surreptitiously. Kennie bawls. Liam overhears and closes his eyes, and quietly thanks everything that will listen. One visitor at a time, they are told. But the fact that they are allowed to visit at all is such an improvement that they can’t help but hope. The room is cold and dim and unfriendly, and Liz looks like hell. When Monica sees her, she feels such a strange mix of elation and sadness that her breath turns heavy and she almost cannot go on, but she does. She goes to Liz’s bed and looks down at her daughter, and she wonders what her husband would have said if he were here. “Elizabeth Michelle Emerson,” she whispers, stroking Liz’s hair away from her face. She remembers being just two floors above here, holding Liz when she was still just a small bundle of pink in her arms. She remembers shifting Liz from one arm to the other so that she and her husband could sign the birth certificate beneath the name that they had chosen so carefully.
