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. …

“But you’re safe here now.”

Safety is not an answer to grief. It is merely the first condition under which grief can begin telling the truth.

The first weeks were hard in the way honest weeks often are. Susan oscillated between brittle politeness and explosions of anger that always seemed to arrive when the dishwasher was running or Raymond was asleep continue reading …