She was sleeping four hours a night. She had stopped eating lunch. Her hands shook slightly when she held her coffee. She had not laughed at anything in six weeks. But she told me she was fine. Her body knew otherwise. It had been trying to tell her for months.

She was the leader everyone wanted. The one who remembered your name, your kid's name, what was keeping you up at night. By the time she called me, she could not finish a sentence without apologizing for taking up space. She was the most caring leader I had worked with in years. And she was completely empty.