At the opening, Rosalind wore her hair short, silver, and impeccably styled.
No wig.
Emerson stood beside her and gave no speech — he simply stood, and listened.
When she stepped to the microphone, before a room of journalists and community leaders and women who had endured betrayals of their own, she smiled.
“For generations,” she said, “we’ve been taught that a mother must endure any amount of pain for her children.
But a mother also has an absolute right to defend her own dignity.
Age does not make us weak.
Trust does not make us fools.
And love never requires us to surrender our self-respect.”
The applause ran for minutes.