A Daughter Without Her Mother Is A

The Heat Made People Crazy. They Woke From Their Damp Bedsheets And Went In Search Of A Glass Of Water, Surprised To Find That When Their Vision Cleared, They Were Holding Instead The Gun They Kept Hidden In The Bookcase.

They Would Always Be A Family, But If She'd Learned Anything In The Past Few Weeks It Was That A Family Wasn't A Static Thing. There Were Always Changes Going On. Like With Continents, Sometimes The Changes Were Invisible And Underground, And Sometimes They Were Explosive And Deadly. The Trick Was To Keep Your Balance. You Couldn't Control The Direction Of Your Family Any More Than You Could Stop The Continental Shelf From Breaking Apart. All You Could Do Was Hold On For The Ride.

To Those Who Are Here, Those Who Are Gone, And Those Who Are Lost.

Before This Trip And All That She'd Learned About The Three Of Them, She Would Have Gotten Angry Or Changed The Subject. Anything To Obscure The Pain She Felt. Now She Knew Better. You Carried Your Pain With You In Life. There Was No Outrunning It.

I Have Often Wished In The Past Few Years That My Mom Were Here To Help Me As I Raised My Own Teenage Son. As A Girl, With My Own Mom, I Thought I Knew It All; Now I Know Better. Somewhere, I Know My Mom Is Smiling.