The Sunday Magazine

The Night - Essay

Catastrophes have to be good for something. Sometimes they are wake up calls. Sometimes they rearrange borders. And sometimes they bring people together in surprising ways....
Catastrophes have to be good for something. Sometimes they are wake up calls. Sometimes they rearrange borders. And sometimes they bring people together in surprising ways.

Mary Jane McPhee has had a troubled relationship with her brother, Don, since childhood. That all changed one night in a hospital room, when she came to visit him after his double lung and heart transplant.