I was sixteen when my mother died. I was a baby when she was diagnosed with cancer the first time. Five when she was diagnosed the second time. Seven, the third. Then eleven, when my dad picked me up at softball practice to let me know that my mother’s bone marrow transplant hadn’t worked, and the cancer was back, forever associating the clank of aluminum bats with bad news. Then thirteen, when I got off the bus and could tell just by looking at my dad’s face. The recurrences and diagnoses blend together after that. There was more chemo, another transplant. My mother died with the white blood cells of an anonymous German man — her third set.