“If Only” We Could Stop Using These Words

About five years ago, my father-in-law was getting ready to leave the house he and my mother-in-law, Jane (name changed), lived in and wanted to kiss his wife before he left. She was in the middle of vacuuming the stairs and when she came up to kiss him, she slipped and fell down the stairs. The fall put her in a coma for a couple of days and ended up damaging some parts of her brain that control her motor functions. Since then, she’s needed assistance to walk and has a hard time controlling her hands and speech. After my father-in-law died about two years ago, my wife and I, knowing…