was delivered, the pattern on the screen unchanged.

The room was now overflowing with nursing staff, doctors, students, respiratory therapists, and lab technicians. At some point I noticed a thin, shaking figure in the corner, his blue eyes wide and panicked. Perhaps he had arrived for an early morning visit. Perhaps he had been there all night. In the pressured rush, no one had noticed the quiet little man who was now watching his wife trying to die.

One of my medical school professors frequently reminded us, You only see what you are prepared to see. When Dr. Johnson arrived, he walked straight through the crowd to the patient’s husband, placing an arm around his shoulder. He had been their doctor for over twenty years, attending to them together inyou to know that.

Her dark eyes held mine in a long silence, unmasked, both of us beginning to lay an unfinished life to rest. This unexpected compassion would not erase the exhaustion and doubt of a questioning young physician, but her gentle gift would allow a measured peace until morning.

I embraced her, and stepped out into the light.

Anne Jacobson is a family physician for the Cook County Health System in Chicago, Illinois. She earned an MD from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s in Public Health from the University of Illinois—Chicago. Her work has appeared in JAMA, and she lives in Oak Park with her husband, John, and children, Daniel and Maya.

On Bearing Witness

LAURIE FOOS

After seven years of watching her father battle cancer, Laurie Foos still felt