*Please contact us immediately to confirm if this is indeed your wish, as your condition requires urgent intervention.*

My breath caught in my throat.

My mother had never mentioned any cancellations; she had cried in her bed, wondering why the doctors had abandoned her.

I picked up another letter, dated two months later.

It was a formal notification from her primary physician, stating that his access to her medical records had been revoked by her legal proxy.

Attached to the back of the letter was a photocopy of the authorization form.

It was signed by Mark, using a power of attorney that my mother had never granted him.

Beside his signature was Patricia’s distinctive, flowing handwriting, signing as the witness.

They had cut her off from the world.

They had let her believe she was dying alone, rejected by the doctors who could have saved her.

I found a second document, a log kept by our family cook, detailing the medication Patricia had insisted on administering herself.

The dosages did not match the prescriptions in the medical files.

A shadow fell across the frosted glass of the viewing room door.