Scott had already decided that, no matter what the outcome, their world would soon divide into two groups: Those who were healthy and would have to help and those who were sick and would desperately need help.

Jane was the first to call. Then the others started trickling in.

Finally, Lael knew. And she was horrified.

· · · · ·

When the Bishop kids visit their mother, they never know what to expect.

Will she touch them, look at them, talk to them? Or will she sit silent, rubbing her fingers together incessantly, eyes downcast and out of focus as they chronicle for her the intricacies of their young lives?

One day, she wishes the middle child, Trevor, a happy 9th birthday. Another day, she asks Rebecca, almost 15 and the oldest, when she got braces.

Most of the time, they dance around her, reaching mother-hungry arms for a hug. And they come up with nothing but air.

The children visit her most every Sunday, loading up the car after church to make the drive from Orem to the Salt Lake City nursing home where Amy has lived for nearly three months. She has become a management problem; she's very aggressive. Because of that, for the past six months she's been in and out of the hospital and moved from the nursing home where she and Julie lived doors apart. Now she lives down the hall from her father, so the children usually stop in to see Grandpa John, too.

Sometimes he seems to know who they are. Other times, he seems indifferent.

The older children, Rebecca, Craig and Trevor, look forward to seeing her, though they often come away disappointed and sad. They have some very good memories of their mother — though too few for Trevor. "If I was older, I would get to keep more memories," he says.

Andrew, 6, and Hannah, 4, don't really remember Amy as a mother. They were too little. During visits, they're apt to play with each other. Sometimes Hannah amuses herself by dancing for the elderly residents at the nursing home.

"It's hard and easy to go see her," Rebecca says. "She was in the hospital more than a month, and I started looking forward to seeing her. But it's hard to see her, too. She's not what she was."

Robert Bishop makes it a point to go through old photos and talk to his children about their mother and why he fell in love with her. He tells funny stories of things they did. He emphasizes how much she loves her children.