patiently helped his wife to walk fell as well.'

The quiet girl paused here. The old man sensed her pain, but did not interrupt her. He sat quietly next to her, folding and unfolding his hands, but otherwise not moving.

The girl took a deep breath. 'Our healthcare system wasn't the greatest, I don't think. I was young, but I know my grandmother was dying, but she shouldn't have died that way.'

They sat in silence again, watching the ducks in the water, and ignoring the occasional jogger behind them on the path.

'I don't remember much more. I was in a boat, hiding other my mother's skirt. My grandparents and my father were gone. It was cold, so cold, and the wind whipped our hair and cut right through our clothes. My mother had made sure

I was wearing a jacket, but it was so ragged and torn it was barely better than nothing at all. My mother and I shivered together in the bottom of the boat. We lay, not speaking, barely breathing, our only movement trying to bail out some of the water in the bottom of the boat.