I got one of those phone calls nobody wants to get. I was out walking our small dog, Bear, past the flowers and trees of our street when my phone buzzed. I looked at the unfamiliar number, “Walnut Creek” flashed on the screen and I almost didn’t answer. But, uncharacteristically, I did pick up.
“This is John Muir Hospital. Are you Mica Estrada?” “Yes,” I responded and stopped breathing. The rest of the words that followed were a blur. The words that won’t go away are “motorcycle accident,” “unconscious,” and the dreaded “bring someone with you when you come.”
Before that phone call, I had been recovering from COVID and had a terrible lingering cough and feelings of fatigue. After that phone call, the cough and fatigue vanished and I went into survival mode. My mom arrived the next day and I spent........