The moment my sister Hannah gave birth, the entire family seemed to shift into a new emotional register, one tuned to joy, exhaustion, and awe. By Tuesday afternoon, my husband Mark and I were already on the road to the hospital, the back seat filled with pastel balloons, a stuffed giraffe, and a bouquet that smelled overwhelmingly of lilies. It was Hannah’s first child, something she had waited for through years of uncertainty, doctor visits, and quiet heartbreak she rarely talked about. The sky outside was bright and cloudless, the kind of ordinary day that gives no warning of how deeply it will lodge itself into your memory.

The maternity ward greeted us with soft beeping monitors, hushed voices, and that unmistakable mix of antiseptic and baby powder. Hannah was propped up in her bed, hair pulled back in a loose, messy knot, dark circles under her eyes, but smiling in a way I’d never seen before—tired, triumphant, and almost dazed. She looked smaller somehow, yet stronger at the same time.