In March 1921, fifteen-year-old Rose Sullivan made a decision that changed the course of her life forever. She did not escape through a crowded street. Instead she walked through the cold, dimly lit tunnels beneath Boston City Hospital, eight months pregnant, trusting a stranger who had chosen compassion over silence. Rose had been married at thirteen in an arranged marriage to Thomas, a man ten years older. By the time she was fifteen and expecting her first child, her life had become tightly controlled. She was rarely allowed to leave the house and had little say over even the smallest details of her daily life. One morning she pretended to be seriously ill so she would be taken to Boston City Hospital. Once inside she slipped away through a door marked “Staff Only” and made her way into the basement. Alone in the tunnels near the morgue she began to cry. Patrick O’Brien, a fifty-year-old morgue attendant, found her. He could have sent her back. Instead he said, “Follow me.” He led her through the underground passageways to the women’s ward. There she met Dr. Elizabeth Morrison, who arranged for medical care, protection, and legal assistance. By the time Rose’s husband discovered where she was, the opportunity to force her home had passed. About a month later Rose gave birth to a healthy daughter. In time she secured a divorce and raised her child as a single mother. Years later that same daughter returned to the hospital and spent more than three decades working there as a nurse. Rose lived to the age of ninety-three. Looking back she said, “I walked through death to reach life. Every mother does when she gives birth. I just did it a little more literally.” Patrick O’Brien later wrote that he had used “the tunnels of death to lead someone toward life.”