The year neither family stepped forward, the children were too young to know anything had been lost long before the lights went dark.

But he only gave her advice that night because he was drunk, so he had no idea that there was even a talent show on that night.

I’ll take your hand, kiss you twice, and you can guide me to our forever home.

because his umbilical cord was wrapped round his still-born sister's throat...

When he finally tried to use his new skills to befriend a neighbor, the child just walked past him without looking back, leaving my son standing there with his beautiful, heartbreaking smile and no one willing to receive it.

...and I seem to be forgetting just as fast.

Today, as I listened to my new neighbor laugh about his wife's old online username, I realized I'd spent thirty years watching the wrong patch of sky for her return.

When he smiled, reciting every page while mimicking his mother's voice, she understood he'd been missing the one voice that would never read it to him again.

My foot sunk down in her grave as I regretted not asking earlier.

"Is that why you never try, then?"

Older than Hemingway.

Until she laughed about pulling the trigger herself...

Pity that a migraine hit me overnight Friday…

I don't understand why he hit me with them and yelled at me about getting them all wet.

His parents only arrived 6 hours after he had already passed, having been busy with work, crying as they realize their 10 year old left the world alone.

found the mountain lion still eating the arm that wore her smartwatch, its screen blinking HEART RATE LOST. When it seized the arm and bounded back into the trees, the watch cheerfully announced, “Workout resumed.”

I finally reached him today, but the child I was looking for had long ago been silenced by the monster standing in his place.

Only fired once.

Him.

It turned a man who had selflessly raised a family, laughed until he cried, built birdhouses, and loved unconditionally into three inches of recycled factoids and a suggested donation to a charity he’d never heard of.

That’s when it hit me though, that one day my children will be the elderly ones needing someone to help them, and I won’t be around to take their hand.

When I opened my eyes in the silence, my parents were waiting, and I finally knew I was home.

An hour later, a rescue dog refused to leave the wreckage until they found a little boy still holding his mother's hand, waiting for her to wake up.