Marvel. That is her name.

I asked her how she's doing.
Hanging in there, she said.
That's about all you can do, I said.
Then she said, with a thoughtful chuckle, I'm fine. Just fine.

Her daughter, mother of four young children, is dying of cancer. Brain tumors, two surgeries, many treatments, more tumors growing, nothing more can be done. Nothing. So she is dying. No question of it. Her mother tells me she has learned courage from her daughter, and patience and how to accept what is terrible but inevitable with a cheerful heart and countenance. Her mother has taught me courage, because she has to have courage, too.

And here is what else I have learned over the years. People respond, if hesitantly, I'm fine, because that is easier than having to talk about it again and again. When you have to talk about it, that means you have think about it, go through it all over, and it's painful. I know this. So I think long before I ask that question: how are you?

Probably you already know these things.