There are some days Ron will always remember because of the newspaper headlines: Kennedy’s assassination on November 23, 1963, especially because he was there, and the first moon landing on July 20, 1969. However, there are no headlines to mark the event on April 1, 1999, which changes the course of the Halls’ life.

The day begins like any other: Ron and Deborah have coffee together while he reads the paper—Eartha Kitt is still performing her lounge act at seventy-two, and George Bush has raised six million dollars for his nascent presidential campaign. Deborah reads the Bible. After that, Ron has lunch with their daughter Regan, who thought she wanted to be an art dealer like her father but has discovered she wants to do something else without knowing what that is. Deborah goes to the doctor for her yearly checkup.

During lunch Deborah calls Ron to have him join her at the hospital as a lump was found in her abdomen during her exam. An X-ray shows spots all over her liver. Nobody says it at the time, but everyone is thinking the same thing: cancer. Her doctor schedules a colonoscopy for the next morning. That night, in bed, Deborah tells Ron about the Israelite spies who report on the Promised Land: “When the spies came back, they brought good news and bad news […] The good news was that the land did flow with milk and honey, just as God promised.