CNU-My daughter-in-law said Christmas would be easier if I stayed away, and my son did not even raise his eyes to defend me. So I stayed home, alone, exactly as requested. …

grown children burn down something they tried to build.

We did not set places for absences. I have never found theatrical grieving useful. But the missing were there anyway—in the extra quiet before the meal, in the way Susan checked her phone after dinner and then turned it face down, in the fact that Raymond asked whether prison turkey tasted different continue reading …