your 40 year old mother, Jennifer.

"My mom!" you gasped in horror. "But...but that means...."

"Yes, I'm sorry, but your mother is dead," he said with surprising tenderness and sincerity.

"But how?" you asked, tears coming to your eyes. You hadn't been particularly close to your mother since you hit your teens. You know that she loved you but you felt that you had never lived up to her expectations. She was pretty and popular in school, having been both a successful athelete and homecoming queen. She kept herself up very well - focusing a bit too much on her appearance, you'd always thought. You felt deep down that maybe she didn't resent you exactly - but that since she had put aside any hope of a career to raise you and your siblings, she expected you to live up to the standards she set in her youth. Her pressuring you as child had the opposite effect - you were never especially motivated in school. You had good enough grades but weren't interested to pushing yourself, never seeking popularity and avoiding participation in sports and similar things..

Still, you did love your mom. It didn't seem real that she was gone.

Dr. Saunders patted your shoulder, shaking you from your thoughts. "It was a shock to all of us. She seemed perfectly healthy at the accident scene, but she must have had a blood clot from the wreck. She had an aneurysm almost as soon as she got to the hospital. She was an organ donor and Allison had just been pronounced dead. Dr. Kerry had to make a quick decision to try to save your girlfriend and, regardless of my opinion on his methods, he succeeded." He looked you squarely in the eyes. "It's terrible about your mother. But she died, son. Now your girlfriend needs you. Understand?"

"Yes sir," you answered, regaining control of yourself.

He gave you a few minutes to compose yourself. Wiping away your tears, you noticed that he seemed to have something else to say. "Yes, doctor, what is it?" you asked.

"Well, Tim, there's one more thing I should mention about your father..."