Anxiety, Loss, and Care Not all pregnancies end in joy. Lisette acknowledges ambiguity and sorrow as part of the cycle: miscarriages like aborted buds, decisions about continuation or cessation like pruning for a healthier tree. Her rites include quiet mourning—broken eggshells buried beneath a willow, a night of unornamented silence—so loss is witnessed instead of buried. Care in Lisette’s cult is communal and practical: meals left at doorsteps, a steady hand for breastfeeding problems, help with older children—the work of growing a family distributed across the village.