Wounds That Won't Heal

On Friday, Giffords is expected to leave the hospital for a rehabilitation center. Amy Davidson surveys the remaining physical and emotional wreckage:

Bill Hileman told the Los Angeles Times that his wife, Susan, who was shot that day, has been torturing herself with the idea that “She took a friend’s kid away and didn’t bring her back." Susan had taken Christina to meet her congresswoman because she wanted to encourage her interest in politics. (Bill said that he and Susan, who have two grown children, were “aspiring grandparents.”) She left her hospital bed briefly to see the flowers and notes for the victims that had piled up out front. Another sort of memorial might be for people to take girls to meet their congresswomen and to other political eventsboth because it’s helpful and to remind Hileman that she did the right thing. For now, though, her husband said, Hileman has been waking up in the hospital screaming Christina’s name, and stray sentences like, “hold my handkeep your eyes on me, baby.”

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