“You're a survivor. Each one of you. And survivors don't have the luxury of acting like regular people. We do what we have to do to get by.”

“That we can live out our children’s lives in a way—do things on behalf of them. It gives them a chance to have an impact.”

“Molar pregnancies like Janet’s are indeed rare, but they do happen. Over the last decade, frustrated and worried women have emailed me, asking why their doctors won’t pay attention to their symptoms, telling them to just “wait it out.” I think this happens because obstetricians see so many situations, and most of the time, it works out the way they expect—the recovery may be short, medium, or long, but will not require intervention. But statistics like one in five hundred are meaningless if you are the one. I always tell women who can’t get through to their doctors to start looking for one whose office responsiveness matches her needs. Not every doctor and every patient are going to be a good fit.”

“Yeah, the majority head out after three or four meetings. They get pregnant again, mostly, or tire of grieving and just move on. Often their partners aren’t supportive of their sadness playing out too long. They guilt them into acting like they’re better.”

“, repeatedly visiting the online baby calendar to see what stage of growth the baby would have been in.”

“No use trying to outdo each other,” Dot said. “What’s easy for one might break somebody else.”

“Melinda settled back against the bricks. Just go in. Let me escape. Jake would interrogate her, no doubt. Maybe she should just never go home. Get a job again and be independent. Avoid the thought of having babies. Or failing at it.”