My daughter visited twice.
Then her kids’ activities got “too demanding.”
The drive got “too long.”
Eventually she stopped calling altogether.
My son came once.
He sat for twenty minutes scrolling through his phone like I was a background app.
He left before the machine had even finished cycling my blood.
My ex-wife sent flowers on my birthday.
When I got home from the clinic, they were already wilted a perfect summary of effort without follow-through.