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"Here, you're all alone with your aches and

pains, your spasms, your skin problems and your

bathroom difficulties. Just getting in and out of this

bed is going to seem like a ten mile hike, believe-- "Take my word for it,' she interrupted herself.

"Take my word for it because I've lived through it and

seen it."

She nodded with a cold smile settling in her

face and then continued.

"You think because you're home here,

everything's going to get back to the way it was. Well,

it won't, ever, so you got to work on making the best

of it all and that's why I'm here: to show you the way

and to give you the benefit of my experience. "Now that's the one and only time I'll give you

a lecture. If you want me around. I'll stay and I'll do

my job. If you fight me and contradict me and make

me work double. I'll pack my bag and go off to take

care of someone else whose family's knocking on my

door and who will be more appreciative.

"I don't mean to sound harsh, but if we don't

face reality right off, we're going to have a harder

time tomorrow. That you can believe whether I say

believe me or not."

"We?"

"What's hard for you is hard for me because I

got to help you through it." she said without

hesitation. "This isn't like taking care of some patient

in a home who can't remember her name and age and

when she went to the bathroom last. You've got an

active mind in a broken body. I have seen what that

can do and what that means.