Before I left, Carlton came into the kitchen. “Elnora,” he said. “Will you come back tomorrow? To help start packing up her things? The clothes. The kitchen….

So I’d sit. And we’d talk. About everything. The weather. Her boys. My Alfreda. The preacher at First Presbyterian, who she said couldn’t preach his way out…

On Sunday morning, I drove to the nursing home early, before the church crowd came through. Daddy was sitting up in his recliner by the window, already…

I didn’t call Sherry. I want to say that plainly, because I’ve thought about it a hundred times since. I had my phone in my hand. Her…

She told me the week he went in. We were standing in the hallway outside his room, and she was holding her purse in front of her…

Three nights later, I woke up at two in the morning. There was a strange pressure in my belly. A heaviness, low down, like someone was pressing…

On the first Sunday in September, the family came for dinner. They do that once a month. It’s the only thing I’ve asked them for since Robert…