About three weeks and three hours after mom’s death, my little sister sent me this text message:

Dr. Buck just called to see how Mom was doing.

He’s a good guy. If you had any questions, you could probably talk to him.

I replied and asked:

Out of the blue on a Sunday night? Huh?

Why would he call you like that?

Did you tell him what happened?

She wrote back to me:

I did. He said Mom was on his mind. He had been wondering about treatment plans for her. If I remember correctly, [redacted] brought Mom to him because someone from their church knew him or he used to go there.

He cared about Mom. He just didn’t have the answers.