Broken Stones, Broken Bones

Last winter freezing weather cracked the stones I had so carefully placed along the garden path. This summer Mother fell, causing a bruised, chipped bone in her left hand and a broken pelvic bone. Fresh out of the earth, unweathered stones respond to an altered ecosystem. Too long at work— 88 years in her body, my mother's bones snapped. New stones crack, old bones break. Stones gather strength and harden as they age. Would that bones could do the same.