Claire’s father had died of a stroke in 2009. Patricia, 81, was in an assisted-living facility outside Raleigh—her mind still sharp, her loss still present. Claire’s sister Diane, a senior physician in Chapel Hill, met Dellray in the facility parking lot. When she saw the photograph, she turned away briefly, then looked determined.
“Does Mom know?” Diane asked. Dellray said not yet. Diane nodded once. “When you tell her—and you will need to—please, not that it was a choice. Let me be there. Let me be the one to frame it for her.” Dellray said he understood. He meant it.