Summary

“Cease Not till Death,” pages 191 – 199. Kalanithi describes how Lucy’s due date passed without any sign of labor. He was discharged from hospital and went home to rebuild strength, feeling devastatingly tired and weak. Eventually, Lucy began to feel contractions. His mother, the author says, took Lucy to the hospital while he kept an appointment with Emma. As he and Emma discussed the situation, he writes, he realized that they were both struggling to see the way forward. When Emma assured him he had five years, he realized that she was no longer speaking as a physician, or as a seer who could say, with confidence, and faith, what the future holds: she spoke, he says, as a human being. “Doctors, it turns out, need hope too.”

Meanwhile, Lucy went into labor, the author was allowed into the delivery room to keep her...