As a continuation of the Now Times, a series where I look at how people’s lives have been affected by the pandemic, and specifically how palliative care has been shaped by the pandemic, I interviewed Dr. Khaliah Johnson, a palliative care pediatrician. Dr. Johnson talks about how the simultaneous challenges brought by COVID and racial tensions of this past year, particularly with police brutality and racialized violence, have shaped her work and the experiences of her patients. Over the last year, Dr. Johnson has realized that her patients and their families--who are already dealing with terminal illness--come in with a baseline level of suffering . For patients of color or those hit particularly hard by the pandemic, our social issues complicate their experiences in palliative care and Dr. Johnson has become more attuned to these nuances. She explains that this past year has reminded her that she and other healthcare providers must exercise their “moral imaginations” to truly understand and appreciate what patients are going through . This moral imagination helps Dr. Johnson walk alongside her patients in the hardest moments of their lives, helping families and children to realize that palliative care is not about pure suffering but that it gives and supports life, in all its permutations.