When the Flowers Fall, You Are Free

The third year after I was diagnosed with brittle bone disease, Pat Gilbert was the only reason I kept going. She padded every table corner, laid non-slip mats across the floor, filled the bathroom with grab bars, and even eased me out of bed like I might break. "Take it slow. I won't let you fall." Then Roderick Winfield came back from abroad. He'd studied rehabilitation medicine, and he said everything Pat did was only reinforcing my identity as a patient.