Such beautiful solitude, isn't it?

To be alone in movies is to take the last scrabbling steps up a steep mountain slope to finally ascend the summit, or to stretch on a beach silhouetted against the sunrise sky while breathing deeply of the sea, and so to be alone often seems like a thing of beauty. But this morning the image of alone is a woman with thin gray hair blown all across her head by a fan in the corner of her hospital room. She lies curled on her side facing away...