TERRY TEACHOUT: Muddling Through Somehow. “And what kind of Christmas are we going to have in 2019? The very finest kind, of course—because we’ll be spending it together. Not so long ago, we were both singletons, but we found one another against all odds, and since then we’ve learned over and over again that nothing in the world is more important to us than our abiding love.”

The ICU is not the place to spend Christmas Eve, but there is hope and joy there, too, sometimes.