outside Boston.
I invited the engineers.
Therapists.
Patients.
Nurses.
And families who had helped us develop the technology.
My parents were not on the guest list.
Mom called after she found out.
“Are you really excluding us?”
I thought about the text they had sent exactly one year earlier.
Only high-society guests will be there.
“No,” I said quietly. “I’m choosing the people who were there before the headline.”
There was a long silence.
Then I ended the call.
For years, my parents believed status determined who deserved a seat
