Restoring intimacy to the physician-patient relationship.

A young woman came to see me a few days ago, a former patient now in her twenties. She will die soon; nothing can be done. We shared some recollections of the years when I was her pediatrician, and she expressed some regrets that she was to have no future. But she shed no tears. Still, I cannot forget her eyes staring into the distance as though searching for a way to cry. Momentarily, she smiled slightly, kissed my check, and was gone. We shall not meet again.