July, Chapter 6: Taylor Summary and Analysis

Fran and Carey Poarch have just buried Taylor's twin Jake. Taylor's appearance is fairly shocking, as she is still very small and covered in tubes, including a plastic ventilator tube stuck in her mouth, and a chest covered with two electrodes. Every extra moment is spent with Taylor. The chapter introduces one of Taylor's nurses, Virginia Lennox, who often grew attached to babies in Turner and describes her attachment to Taylor. Taylor's biggest health problem is that she was not ready to be born and had underdeveloped lungs. The ventilator helps this problem but it damages the lungs and makes permanent ventilation quite difficult. The damage increases over the weeks, and Taylor develops scarring of the lung tissue. She also develops stretching of the lungs' tiny air sacs until they become useless.

As time progresses, Fran and...