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On the night my parents left me alone in a hospital bed fighting for my life, my mother said something I will never forget, “If you die, don’t ruin your sister’s birthday with it. I wish I could say I misunderstood her, I wish I could say there was context or confusion, but there wasn’t, because sh…

On the night my parents left me alone in a hospital bed fighting for my life, my mother said something I will never forget, “If you die, don’t ruin your sister’s birthday with it. I wish I could say I misunderstood her, I wish I could say there was context or confusion, but there wasn’t, because she said it clearly, calmly, like my life was nothing more than an inconvenience. I was seventeen, hooked up to monitors, my chest burning, my body shutting down from a reaction that came out of nowhere,