“Years after my mother died, I decided to read her medical records. There I thought I’d find the most precise evocation of her fate: the facts of her death, the hows and whys that stand independent of stories and dreams… Doing so wasn’t easy. At first my mother’s doctor’s office fell back on confidentiality. That such facts were secrets presented a clue: a sign that they were not facts at all, but forbidden knowledge, stories none but a doctor could understand.”
