My Son Invited Me on a Family Beach Vacation

everything. I turned my hat upside down and let the shells the children and I had collected slide into my palm. Little white ones, a pink-edged one Susie insisted was lucky, and a flat gray one Matt had given me without a speech, because some gifts do not need words.

I set them beside Jeremy’s framed photo on the mantel.

“Well,” I told him softly. “I continue reading …