Summary

During her pregnancy, the narrator studied children and parents “from the window of a bus” (165). Such scenes made her feel the “anticipation of this future” (165). Though she could imagine an ideal version of this life, she felt most inclined towards her independence (166). The narrator feared tiring of her maternal role, but knew she would strive to make herself “the best mother [she] could” (167).

The narrator wants to invent a redemptive end for Hunter as much as she does for her daughter and herself. However, she knows that “one’s life” is not simply “a well-formed argument” (167). Even still, she tries to find “a pattern or a thread” to her experience (168).

Over the course of the years following Hunter’s return to London, new advances emerged in medicine and surgery. “Battlefield medicine” particularly fueled this progress (169).

Johannes and the narrator told his...