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During my two week hospital stay, silence became my closest companion, settling into the room the way the dim hallway light did, softly but completely. My children lived hours away in different cities, my friends meant well but had full lives, and most visiting hours passed with no familiar face at my bedside. Days blurred into the beeping of machines and the swish of curtains, and nights stretched the longest, when the ward quieted and my thoughts got louder. I kept telling myself it was temporary, that healing demanded patience, but loneliness is not dramatic, it is persistent, and it can make even a clean bright room feel like it is closing in.
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