The Envelope That Changed Everything

the world was, and my mother would lean toward her like a sunflower toward light.

I became the one who stayed.

Quiet. Steady. Useful.

The daughter who filled the gaps so other people never had to notice them.

When my father got sick, the pattern hardened into something like law.

I learned how to heat soup without waking him. How to fold laundry in the dim continue reading …