Gemotions

From the moment she’d received the letter, Sarah had felt… exposed. The letter contained the wrong blood type, the wrong family history, and the wrong – and terrifyingly terminal – diagnosis. The letter had been addressed to her, but it clearly belonged to someone else.

Her normally steady hands shook as she scrolled through the patient portal. The details of another woman’s life were laid bare, and with it, her own, previously uncomplicated reality, felt shattered. The doctor's words replayed in her mind, and she felt a wave of nausea.

She found herself walking taller, as if trying to shrink the discrepancy. She stopped wearing her favorite clothes, afraid they wouldn’t suit a person with a terminal illness. Even the simplest tasks, like ordering coffee, felt like a test, a performance.