Wishard Hospital

During a smallpox epidemic, Indianapolis built its first hospital—in the middle of a swamp.

The blinds were drawn. A feeling of certainty fell peacefully over the room, and with it, relief. Karen leaned over the bed, over Bethany and Susan, and began to pray. All three of them so close together, waiting.

In cases of mass emergency, Managed Emergency Surge for Healthcare (MESH) helps Indianapolis-area facilities train for and coordinate with each other during pressing situations such as the three noted here.

Fashion Mall fun, a ginormous “garage sale,” and a name-your-price opportunity.

Including one of Indiana’s biggest cons, a complicated woman in her final days, a reality-TV hilljack, the crafty governor-elect, a big-deal farmer, the coupling of an actress and a corn-fed rocker, and more.

Death, though certain, is anything but predictable. And how we react to mortality can be just as unforeseeable.

I had been going back to the night of August 13, 2011, time and time again, in quick succession. And I was shaken.