NEW ORLEANS — “Would it help if you sat here right now and called the doctor and rescheduled your appointment?” Malaika Milele Gardner asked.

Erica Williams had made and missed a few of them. She had diabetes, and had been feeling off lately, short of breath — but things had been crazy. She was 37, a single mom, a real estate agent working toward buying a home of her own. Sometimes she still picked up a bartending shift in the French Quarter if she really needed to. Mostly her days were filled with the uncountable little urgencies of work and parenting, getting her kids fed and bathed, getting them to day care and school, visiting properties, reaching out to buyer after buyer, trying to close deals. She sat with her youngest two on the living room floor for make-believe tea parties, minia

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