Tag: loss
-
Without her

My mother died at sixty. My kids were six, four, and two. What came next, in order: a divorce, single motherhood. And about nine months after we lost her, my father moved away. There was still some family, technically. But asking the few who remained came at a cost, one way or another, in ways…
-
Come Back Later

Before my son was born, my mom told me she wasn’t sure what kind of grandmother she’d be. She’d already gone over and beyond as a mother, poured absolutely everything she had into raising us, and I think she assumed being a grandmother would be more of the same, a similar dynamic, maybe with a…
-
What She Knew

They were laughing when I walked in. My ex, and a man I didn’t recognize, sitting together in the courtroom before the hearing started, easy and joking like two people waiting for a ballgame. I didn’t know who the man was. It didn’t even occur to me to worry about it. I had done nothing…