Critiques and Writer's Discussion

I don't consider Exchanged to be a detective story, because unlike in LCW, there were no clues revealed that would indicate that someone we had met before or heard about was involved. Furthermore, the gynecological clinic of the university hospital is a building where such a facility would not be expected. If there is a secret place in this story, it definitely should not be there. This would require a building on a university campus where we would be clearly told in advance that it is at least 300 years old and has been rebuilt several times since then, with the first and second rebuilds taking place more than 150 years ago. Then we can assume that during the first reconstruction, some rooms may have been walled up and during the second reconstruction, they may have been uncovered again and perhaps fitted with a secret door. Otherwise, there are already twins in this story, but in no case is the main suspect one of Carly's younger sisters, and then it turns out that all the witnesses mistook her for the other one, so these twins are allowed.   Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Chapter Sixty Three   John almost felt whiplash going from being in time out to MeMaw was cheerful and ready to play again. Apparently punishment was just part of being loved by MeMaw. Watching with one eyebrow raised as high as it would go, he could really only just go along for the ride as MeMaw picked him up, grabbed a blanket and carried him outside. Once outside she didn’t even put him down, she used her foot to slide the drawing desk she had bought him to the middle of the porch and dropped the blanket on a chair.  Then she turned around and carried him back inside. Apparently she wasn’t going to trust him unsupervised while outside on the porch again. Which was probably fair, even though he wouldn’t go off the porch this time. Instead, John found himself being carried back to his room where MeMaw handed picked up his entire box of 3D coloring pencils and said “Hold this.” So John just took the nearly foot wide box and held it while MeMaw got the biggest of the drawing pads she had just gotten him. With a pause to grab Rupert and pin him awkwardly between the two of them, they swung through the kitchen as MeMaw squeeze John tightly enough that his eyes went wide while she used her right arm to snag his toddler cup with her pinky finger.  Everything was a bit precariously balanced, which amused John since MeMaw always seemed like the super organized and hyper planned out sort of person. As they went out the door, John used his left big toe to get under the top of his right sock and pry it off, and vice versa. By the time MeMaw knelt down and stood him up, he had been barefoot for several seconds.  MeMaw spread the thin blanket out in front of the little plastic drawing desk, then took the pad and box of pencils from him. When she went to pick him up and put him where she wanted him to sit, she stopped and blinked a bit. Looking back the way they came, she saw the socks on the porch, then looked back and asked herself “… how?” Taking advantage of the moment of confusion, John moved himself over to the drawing desk and sat up how HE wanted to sit before MeMaw could do it for him. Looking up and trying to milk catching her off guard as best he could he held the large drawing pad aloft and asked:  “Okay, so what do you want drawn?” With a brief shake of her head, MeMaw took control again by leaning down low and getting her left shoulder against his back, grabbed him by his knees with her left arm and lifted him just enough to pull the blanket under him far enough to pull it back up over his legs. Apparently no littles were going to risk being exposed to slightly brisk air on MeMaw’s watch.  Sitting down on the porch next to him, she pointed at the garden. “John, if you would like to do what you did before with the drawing of the yard, that would be very helpful. Can I describe to you how it will be laid out and you give us sort of your own take on how it would look?” With a bit of a shrug, John answered “Sure. If a simple drawing will help, I’ll do my best.” What John was not prepared for, was a complete and in depth explanation that even he had to pay close attention to. “So the yard is going to stay exactly this wide, but it’s going to be exactly twice as long. The row of stones down the middle will simply go all the way to the back porch. The entire right side of the yard will be rows of vegetables going from the inside out at right angles. Along the walkway there will be a row of fences that will come up roughly the height of your chest, with a small gate at each row. You can draw the gates open or closed. There will be a greenhouse in the back right with a roof that has one slant and is shaped like this.” With that, she took a pencil and drew on the cardboard of the drawing pad, four crisp lines outlining the general shaped of the greenhouse, then added a little square for where the door would be. “The left side of the yard will be completely open, aside from a playhouse. The first playhouse you drew was absolutely perfect. Even your little … derpy … friend on the roof was perfect. The playhouse -should- be at the front of the yard near the house, but it can also be drawn at the very back.” John hyper focused on the mental image he was forming in his head. He was so hyper focused he almost completely missed the shouts of celebration coming from the other side of the fence as an automated riding lawnmower came to life and started to follow a carefully programmed set of directions. Looking up, he asked “MeMaw?” “Yes, Sweety?” “Does Mommy know that her entire garden is being moved?” With a gentle pat on the shoulder, MeMaw whispered in a conspiratorial tone. “She’ll figure it out by the time PawPaw comes by with the tiller in the spring.” And there was MeMaw, back to giving off her air of being in complete control of everything around her again. John simply nodded and stared at the paper, trying to imagine how he wanted to take the image from his head and put it down for others to see. “Do you have a ruler?” he asked, as he realized he would need a straight edge. Pointing at him, MeMaw said “Don’t move a single muscle.” as she went quickly inside. After only a few seconds, she came out with a big ruler. Taking the cumbersome ruler from MeMaw, he sighed. OF COURSE it was twice as long as it should be. Shaking his head to clear the frustration, he looked down at the three foot wide piece of paper and laid the ruler down on it. It took some fidgeting but he decided on his proportions pretty easily, since the yard was currently an almost perfect square. With his customary doodle in the corner to keep a mental image of what he started with, he set to work, trying his best to make sure that his perspective lines all ended as close as he could manage to the exact same imaginary spot off into the distance. Once the fence outline was done, he set about carefully outlining the stone pathway. As he was starting to figure out how to set the rows of vegetables and deciding to put all the tall trellis’s in front so that he only had to draw the very inside of the of the rows of vegetables, Mommy’s face filled his view. “Hey, Mommy loves you!” she said as the gave him a kiss on the forehead. He couldn’t help but smile. “I heard that you got to feed Steve. Even if you got in trouble for it. Mike showed me the video he took from the porch.” Confused, John looked over at Mike off to one side, then over his shoulder to MeMaw and then back to Mommy. Before he could even ask, she answered for him “Even though you were in trouble, MeMaw watched from a distance so that you could play with your pet squirrel first.” HAH! So maybe MeMaw had a soft spot for squirrels. Or littles feeding squirrels. Either way, he realized that it had been nice of her to watch him standing on the bucket and letting him get away with it long enough to feed Steve. With another kiss on the forehead, he was bumped with his toddler cup until he took the hint and started drinking before she turned and almost skipped off to where Mike was standing in the garden. Yeah, Mommy was starting to crush on Mr Mike for real. As he went back to drawing, MeMaw interrupted him. “John” she started sternly “Now that more grown ups are here, MeMaw is going to go inside to cook. You can do whatever you want, even if you decide not to draw, but you are not to leave the porch. Do you understand?” Oh, John definitely nodded the affirmative. And by the time the screen door was swung shut, the blanket was off his legs and his feet were sticking off the porch in the slightly brisk air. It was great. Starting to zone out as he drew, he only looked up every so often when a cold dog nose smelled his foot every so often, while Xerxes tried to go be in the middle of the Bigs in the garden, and still check on his little every couple of minutes. Time seemed to fly by as John put more and more detail into his drawing, doing his very best. Some of the gates were closed, and some looked like they were a bit open. He had meant for them to all be closed and he worried that they would think that they looked like that on purpose and think he was good at this sort of thing when he was certain that he was not. By the time he was putting the color in for the siding on the little playhouse, he was interrupted by MeMaw calling out. “Okay you two, it’s time to come inside for dinner!” and then she leaned down to check out his sketch so far. “Oh John!” she practically gushed. “This looks great! And look at how you got the lines perfectly straight as they look like they’re further away. What’s this little square here on the front left?” “Well…” John tried to think of how to justify what he was starting to add on his own. “If there’s a little square of blocks here, Mommy and PawPaw won’t have to move that big grill in and out of the shed all the time. They didn’t seem to have fun with that.” Getting him under the arms and lifting him up, she explained “Well, just leave it at that for now and we’ll see how they do with the yard when the time comes. For now, let’s go get some dinner in you.” “Uhh… dinner already?” he asked, a bit confused. “Sweety, you …” MeMaw paused and then looked at all the progress that he’d made before continuing “… have been working on that for over two and a half hours. I was going to bring you in to play, but you seemed to be having fun.” “Oh.” was all he said as he looked at how much he had filled in. Moving toward the door with him on her hip, she smiled down and said “Besides, I think I know a little that I was told likes Shrimp Stir Fry.” Trying to impersonate PawPaw, John went deadpan and said “But MeMaw, it’s not *really* stir fry unless it comes from the Fry Islands off the coast of the country of Stir.” She simply rolled her eyes as she brought him inside and placing his now slightly squishy bottom directly into the booster seat at the table and buckling him in. After rubbing her eyes for a moment, she finally admitted “That … was terrible. Not bad at all. But … I’m going to have to tell your PawPaw. I’m afraid he’ll be proud.” Looking around while MeMaw walked toward the kitchen, John asked “Hey MeMaw, where are Mommy and Mr Mike?” Coming back with a plate, MeMaw smiled as she sat it down in front of him. “Well, if you must know. I think that I like this Mister Mike fellow a bit, so I think that I’ll feed you, call them in for dinner, and give you a bath while they’re eating. That way they get some extra time together.” Unable to stop himself from smiling about the fact that even MeMaw, for all her controlling urges, seemed to like Mr Mike, he kept his thoughts to himself as he looked down at the table. Head tilting slightly to the left, John stared at the meal on the plate. It was definitely stir fry … … But it looked nothing like what Mommy had made.  … at all. What Mommy had made had the veggies and everything cut into long strips that were fun to spear with the fork and bend in half. MeMaw had taken the extra step to cut everything into smaller, easier … Who was he kidding, they were cut into little child friendly squares. Stir fry you could eat with a spoon seemed so fundamentally wrong.  On the upside, the shrimp wasn’t comically large to try to bite into. On the downside … everything else. “Ummm….” John could not think of what to say to not come across as rude, so his brain seized up a bit. As MeMaw slid a sippy cup next to the plate, she sounded pleased with herself as she declared “Yeah? Is my little grandson that excited for stir fry?” Perfect excuse! Thank you MeMaw. Shifting gears, John said “Yep! I do love stir fry. I’m just used to seeing it with a bit of rice and some soy sauce to add, that’s all. This looks different. Usually it’s in strips. Umm… where’s my for…” She was already scooping some up with a spoon. MeMaw gave him an eager look as she asked “I know you probably want to do it yourself, but would you let me do it tonight?” John couldn’t help a little sigh escaping. She really had done so much for him today, rushing out here and playing savior. It can’t even have been easy to leave him alone to let him draw, even though she obviously wanted to play with him. “Yes MeMaw, you can feed me.” And without further ado, in went the first spoonful of stir fry. It was different from Mommy’s. It had flavor, but not the strong flavor from last time. The sauce was obviously diluted with something to kill any spice or strong flavors. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t as good as what he expected. And so dinner turned into an oddly utilitarian affair. MeMaw did eventually start giving him full spoons eat. She was obviously working very hard to stop herself from making airplane noises or something.  MeMaw may be one of the best of her kind, he thought to himself, but I guess that still does mean she feels like she’s feeding a toddler. It wasn’t until dinner was done that MeMaw walked to the door and called the other two bigs into the house to come get their dinner. And as those two came in, John found himself being carried to the bathroom. As he was fondly remembering a time when he was allowed to walk to places, he was placed onto the bathroom counter next to the seat and his eyebrows went up a bit as he felt himself land on a couple inches of wet padding. It was fully soaked by now. When MeMaw held up a toothbrush with a bit of toothpaste on it, he made absolutely certain that he intercepted it and took it from her so that he could brush his own teeth.  A big not letting him brush his own teeth seemed a bridge too far. And finally he found himself waiting, sitting on the floor by the tub, with his knees wide as the swollen diaper prevented him from standing.  These cursed rough pups started off comfortable, but a little bit wet and he had a definite waddle, and a lot wet … well, walking was basically impossible.  He had no way of knowing whether this was by design, or just a side effect of however the manufacturer made the plastic backing stronger. Certainly they wouldn't make them specifically to immobilize a little on purpose ... would they? Whenever she decided that the water was perfect, MeMaw simply reached down, popped the tapes on his diaper open with a quick flick in opposite directions, and up into the air he went, stark naked as she lowered him into the bubble bath. Before he could really start to protest, he noticed that MeMaw had mixed in some of that relaxing vapo-bath that she had gotten while he was sick. He couldn’t help but take a deep breath through his nose and relax a bit. Oh that stuff is effective. Hearing a cheerful humming from above him as MeMaw lathered some shampoo into his hair, he felt himself relaxing further. So maybe he didn’t need to be as grumpy about this as he was planning to be. “Hey, MeMaw?” he asked without bothering to open his eyes or look up. “Yes, Sweety?” The scrubbing of his scalp paused while she waited. “Umm… Thank you again. I’m not enjoying the being treated like a child thing, but I appreciate the help.” MeMaw leaned down really low and gave him a big kiss on the cheek, leaving him laughing as suds from his hair got all over her face. “You are most welcome, Sweety. You aren’t in your world and you will never really get the autonomy that you used to have. But your Mommy and I are going to do our very best to make sure that you get to be yourself.” John attempted to slump grumpily, but was interrupted by his head being tilted upwards and his hair being rinsed for him. Before she could pour a cup of water on his head a second time, he reached up to pinch his nose shut and laid back in the water, moving his head side to side to get most of the shampoo off. Coming back up, he was greeted by a chuckling MeMaw that dumped the cup of water on his head anyway before applying a dollop of conditioner. Once that was in his hair, she wasted no time lathering up a rag and scrubbing him. “John?” she said as she started scrubbing him.  “Yes?” came his one word reply as the vapors from the bath made him start to feel heavier. “I understand that you’re not enjoying feeling … well, Little. But I have some bad news for you.” “Umm…. What’s that?” he asked tentatively. MeMaw simply smirked as she pulled his foot up and said “No one is going to be able to resist how cute little feetsies are!” and immediately started to tickle his foot.  “Gah!” He tried to twist, but she definitely had the size advantage several times over. After a few moments she stopped and it turned into a bath as usual. It was entirely unsettling when he felt the soaped up rag on his thigh, but absolutely nothing on his private region, and then felt it on his other thigh. Like that region of him simply didn’t exist as far as touch was concerned.  The spray was starting to freak him out a bit more. It was basically spray on chastity. Which was obviously not his thing.  Worse yet, what if some of that got on his hands? Or his feet? If that spray got on his feet, would he even be able to walk at all, or forced to crawl? Every bit more he learned about this world unnerved him a bit more. By the time he snapped out of his own little world, MeMaw was pulling the stopper and getting a towel ready. Taking the initiative to stand up, he was scrubbed dry somewhat firmly before being wrapped up in the towel and carried like a baby toward his bedroom. “MeMaw, I can walk.” He tried. “It’s just to the changing table, silly.” She shut him down.  As they moved to the living room, John was able to sneak a glance over at the dinner table where Mommy and Mr Mike were sitting side by side, with their chairs scooted very close together. At least that was working out well for them. Being laid on the changing table made him shiver a bit as his slightly damp skin hit the cool air in the house and then immediately the cool padded top of the changing table. By the time the bars were over him, MeMaw already had a diaper taken from the slot underneath him.  Catching a glimpse of the diaper as she slid it under him, he realized too late what it was. “MeMaw, that’s an overnight!” He stated, as if he believed for a moment that would help. It was obviously too late as powder got sprinkled onto him and he was taped up at MeMaws usual lightning speed. Just the right amount of snugness that it didn’t shift uncomfortably, and not tight enough to squeeze him or pinch anywhere. As she lowered his legs to the table he could feel the unreasonably strong plastic backing hugging him snuggly from his hip bones to just above his navel. The bottom two tapes aimed up just below his belly button and the top two aimed straight across to the middle. It was like the plastic was woven from multiple layers to be contoured to fit someone exactly his size, with the areas around the leg guards reinforced with another layer of flexible plastic. This diaper wasn’t coming off. And it wasn’t going to stretch in any way. Somehow the overnight diapers felt significantly more like a prison than the regular ones, even though he was just as trapped in them. Probably because the plastic was thicker and the padding was probably two inches thick or more. Between the freaky chastity spray and the crotch prison, John was so distracted trying not to focus on the sensations (and lack of) that he didn’t even think to complain as MeMaw put him back into another onesie. And finally, she added socks. What was it with these bigs and trying to make him wear socks? They’re going to learn eventually that it’s not going to stick. They could spray him with freaky stuff. They could put him in diapers that keep him from walking. They can give him a pacifier that he was starting to put into his mouth out of habit without thinking about it. But socks in the house? Not going to happen. MeMaw clipped the pacifier strap to his onesie, and lifted him up to give him a BIG hug and started kissing him on the forehead and on his left temple as she carried him out of the room.  By the time she was standing by the playmat, his socks were on the floor. She hadn’t even noticed him prying them off with the opposite feet this time either. Shuffled around in front of her, and with her arm under his butt to lift him up, MeMaw’s face filled his view as she rubbed her cheek against his, and repeated on the other side of his face. “Okay, Sweety. I am glad that I was able to make it in time today. And I look forward to all the changes we get to make together soon! But MeMaw has to go home now, and that will give your Mommy and Mr Mike a chance to be here without me in the way. I love you VERY much and I’m going to be back next Thursday just like I was today, and then we can spend even more time together!” Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, John held out his arms in the hug gesture and she immediately lifted him up higher against her chest so he could hug her neck while she patted his entire back with one large hand. “I love you.” She whispered above him. Almost reflexively he mumbled “Love you, too MeMaw.” Her face lit right up with excitement and he had to endure another round of kisses all over his left cheek again. MeMaw started saying “Okay Sweety, I really do have to go. I’m gonna put you down on the …” and then trailed off as she looked down at the playmat. Following her eyes, Xerxes was already laying on his side with his tail moving up and down slapping the mat loudly.  … And he was staring expectantly at MeMaw. He wanted his little. And he wanted him now. “Well. Someone is waiting for you.” Xerxes’ mouth moved a bit before finally he managed to make a “Roff.” sound. It sounded odd, but the dog looked completely serious.  MeMaw’s head tilted to one side. “Did you just sass me, Dog?” “Rawrawrawrof.” Xerxes whined out again, this time lifting his paw and smacking the mat in front of him. John looked up to see MeMaw blinking for a moment before mumbling “I’m being rushed by a dog.” Chuckling now, John clarified “No MeMaw, I think you are being told to get on with it by a Xerxes. He has a bow tie. He’s very stately now.” It took a moment as she stood there rubbing her eyes with her free hand. The delay apparently prompted the dog to dog-talk tell her off some more.  “Okay okay!” Snapped MeMaw as she gave John one last kiss on the temple and then lowering him down and depositing him in the curve against Xerxe’s belly.  “I swear that dog has more personality now than he’s ever had in the two years your Momma has had him.” She couldn’t help but shake her head as she observed out loud. Xerxes, for his part, didn’t seem to care she existed anymore. He was busy smelling his little from the right side of his head down to his leg. Which made John squeal when the cold nose pressed against his exposed thigh. Not content to quit until she was done, MeMaw came back with the black blanket with sleepy stars on it that she had gifted him and made sure he was covered from the waist down. She then held out his tablet. “Now I’m sure you know that you can read before bed, but games aren’t good to play before bedtime, yes?” Taking *every* bit of self control he had to resist rolling his eyes, he answered simply “Yes MeMaw. Besides, I’m most of the way through my book, I want to see how they get out of the hollow asteroid.” With a somehow authoritative nod, she said “Good.”  Leaning back, John spent several minutes giving Xerxes some good scratches while MeMaw went to hug Mommy and shake hands with Mr Mike. With one last pause at the door to blow him a kiss, MeMaw waved and slipped out of the door. Finally, there with his back to his dog, his knees spread more than shoulder length apart, a blanket sort of snugged around him, and the first moment of quiet he had been afforded all day, John immediately felt like he was deflating as his day somehow felt like it was over.  After a few minutes, Mommy came over to find him rubbing at his eyes. Kneeling down, she stroked his mostly dry hair and spoke softly. “You’ve had a busy day. Do you want to sit on the porch while we work in the garden, or stay in the house?”  Shaking his head as the stress fatigue set in, he admitted “I’m fine right here.” Nodding, Mommy said softly “Normally if we were going to be outside, you would have to be in the playpen, but …” As she looked into Xerxes’ eyes, he “Roff’d” at her. “I think you’ll be fine here. Xerxes: Keep.” A happier “Roff!” came from behind him and a tail could be heard slapping the mat like it was trying to break the foam. And just like that, he was finally left to himself. Well, himself and his Guardian Dog-Angel. When Mommy and Mr Mike were outside, he finally slipped a hand under the blanket and tried to worm a finger under the diaper. He tried from the top, but that was obviously never going to work. He lifted one leg and tried from the sides, but the leg gathers somehow moved from the inside, but couldn’t be pushed from the outside.  What a strange and unsettling security feature. Finally giving up and trying to press against the front, the outer shell was so firm that he could barely put any pressure on himself from the outside.  He wasn’t going to be able to even poke himself to see he if he could feel anything down there. It was several frustrated minutes of prodding before he finally gave up and brought up his story on his tablet to read.  Despite the excitement of the chapter, the events of the day took its toll on him as he sat still,his blood circulation slowed down, and his head began to bob slightly with the effort to stay upright.  Without knowing that the tablet had slipped from his hand and to one side, he eventually woke with a start as he felt himself being lifted. When his eyes focused, he could see it was Mommy, and she was closing the curtains, despite it being dim outside. Peeling off her shirt with one hand, which she had gotten good at since adopting a little, Mommy sat back on the rocking chair and pulled a warm blanket over him. Kind of coming to his senses, John tried to look around despite being pinned and halfway covered. “Mmm. Mr Mike leave?” was as coherent as he could mumble. A kiss on his forehead later, Mommy whispered “Mr Mike is outside. He might stay the night tonight. I need to get you fed and tucked in before you’re too far gone.” A bra strap being lowered, he was then presented with a nipple.  Trying to wake up enough to protest, he started “No, I can stay MMPH” and he was cut off as a dripping nipple entered his mouth. Immediately instinct took over and he started suckling the delicious milk on autopilot. To his credit, he completely finished both breasts off for the first time and even stayed awake long enough to feel himself being shuffled up onto her shoulder. “Nuuu, no bur..” But a large hand was already patting him in what she had learned was the exact right spot. “Nu...Nuu..” and finally a long, low belch lasting four seconds escaped his lips, leaving him completely limp over her shoulder.  Mercifully, he was lowered so his head was resting on a warm Mommy’s chest shaped pillow and cocooned against her with the blankie until he finally dozed all the way off.   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~   Laying her son down to rest, Amanda watched as Xerxes dragged his doggy bed into the bedroom by the crib. Crazy dog. Walking back outside, she was greeted by Mike again. “All tucked in bed?” he asked “Yep! Poor guy has had one heck of a day. Xerxes even dragged his bed in there. He’s apparently been separated from his little more than he’s happy with today.” With a nod, Mike continued “Well, I think I have the rest of the harvesting finished. I don’t guess you have a fire pit we can sit in front of and enjoy the cool evening air together?” Shaking her head, Amanda admitted “I don’t. And somehow I don’t think lighting the grill with have the same effect. We could always set that cursed automated lawnmower on fire, but I still need it.” With a bit of a laugh Mike said “You seem to be more comfortable making jokes now. Tell you what, how about an evening stroll over to the stream? Possibly for a more … romantic mood?” Unable to resist a smirk, Amanda double checked that all the doors were shut and locked, and the front gate latched before taking a swig of hot tea and taking his hand to lead him out of the back gate.

I think the next step for me is making sure I’m doing things in a healthy way. I kind of feel like I’ve been obsessing too much over diapers recently. The goal really is just to integrate wearing into my everyday life. I may still decide 24/7 isn’t right for me after all. I do have to make sure diapers aren’t ruining me financially and are not coming between relationships. I do already try to keep this out of site for people who aren’t into it and feel like anything related to kink falls under consent when it comes to exposure. I also am trying to figure out stuff on the physical health side as well. Been trying products for the skin and finding a combination of wipe and diaper cream seems to help. I have heard there is a chance of losing some continence with just wearing diapers all the time and I’m kind of split on that. While I am okay with it and could adjust should I become incontinent, I don’t know that it’s something I want to force to happen. 

You are succeeding

Thanks for reading till the end. It means a lot to me.  Jana is the wild card. She sprung up on me when I least expected her to. She is a prize for the Weiss household. The salary is not as important as the benefits are - health plan, savings, retirement… the best in the world. And a top-notch living experience with almost no personal expenses, if she does things right. Pretty much the same as Theresa.  As a writer I don’t delve too much on specifics. It is not the point, and I would probably get things out of focus.  But despite the billionaire status, the love, care and empathy remain unparalleled in Sally’s world, in her life, and in her growth. Her new growth. Cheers