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. …

her eyes. Later that evening, while Vincent grilled salmon on the deck, she asked what the property taxes were, whether I’d ever considered downsizing, whether the house was in a trust, whether winter maintenance was difficult for “someone alone.”

Someone alone.

Ellen had been dead three years by then. Pancreatic cancer. Six months from diagnosis to continue reading …