Frankie lay in bed in the days following the telegram reporting Rye Walsh’s death, refusing her mother’s attempts to rouse her and numbing herself with gin and sleep. Haunted by memories and the life with Rye she will never have, she drifted between dreams and waking, clinging to grief as the only place he still felt near.

Ethel Flint and Barb Johnson arrived unannounced, summoned by concern after Frankie went silent. They insisted she get up, walked her to the beach, and sat with her through music, surf, and silence. When Frankie finally said aloud that she loved Rye and wondered how she had not felt his passing, Ethel urged her to start living again and Barb suggested channeling pain into activism with Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Pressed to consider what she still had, Frankie named nursing as the core of herself; Ethel affirmed her skill and purpose.

Buoyed by their visit, Frankie cleaned up, assembled a résumé, and interviewed with Director of Nursing Delores Smart at a small San Diego hospital. Despite touting extensive Vietnam surgical experience, she was placed on probation on the 11 P.M.–7 A.M. shift. On her first night, the brusque charge nurse, Mrs. Henderson, restricted her to basic tasks like phones, water, and bedpans, dismissing her combat-earned skills.

Frankie wrote to Ethel on April 27, 1969, venting about being treated like a candy striper but committing to endure and prove herself. Nightmares of Vietnam and Rye’s death continued to jolt her awake. At home, her mother worried about the vampire hours and suggested a club dinner, while Frankie navigated mood swings and exhaustion.

During a mid-May night shift, Frankie again took her post, suppressing frustration. When José Garcia asked for help for his wife, Elena Garcia, who was struggling to breathe with terminal lung cancer, Frankie chose to respond immediately rather than wait for permission. She assessed the pallid, rattling patient and learned from José about Elena’s life as a fierce high school teacher and activist for educational equality. Holding Elena’s hand, Frankie offered comfort and simple care, grounding herself in the familiar, steadying work of bedside nursing.