As Carolyn untangled the umbilical cord from around my neck and placed me on Lillian’s stomach, I watched my mother look down with an expression that conveyed both reassurance and unconditional joy at my arrival, albeit eight weeks early. I was too new to know about the capriciousness of a red-haired woman’s soul, how it was governed by its own laws and remained half empty no matter how many blessings were poured into it. Truth be told, maternal instincts were as far away from Lillian’s he...

""Years ago a friend told me a story about his son who was an air traffic controller. He married the woman every parent wants their son to marry. She was intelligent. She was kind. She was beautiful and couldn't have treated him better - the type of love that makes all the silly country songs into pearls of wisdom. Every day she drove him to the railroad station so he could take the shuttle to work. Every night she picked him up when he returned. On their first anniversary they were sittin...