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Intensive Care

At a busy bus stop, a young woman with kindly brown eyes stepped forward. “You look very good,” she said, patting my arm. “I’m sorry,” I said. “Do I know you?” But the comforting voice? It felt familiar. “Oh,” she said. “I was your nurse when you were in intensive care at the Montreal General Hospital. You could have died,” she added. I remembered my head in clamps, nervous voices, but the nurse always there, encouraging me to talk. I’d had a viral inflammation of the brain. I breathed in deeply. Had she saved my life? “Thank you” I said.

Sheila McLeod Arnopoulos is the author of four books, including Saris on Scooters: How Microcredit is Changing Village India, a 2010 finalist for the Canadian National Business Book Award. Find Sheila at microcreditwomenindia.com.

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