She recognized me before I introduced myself.

“I have nothing kind to say about the first years,” she told me bluntly.

“I don’t expect you to.”

She described the practical difficulties I had never seen.

Two infants with different sleep schedules.

A rented apartment above a noisy shop.

Childcare arrangements that changed whenever someone’s work hours shifted.

Marianne had worked through exhaustion while continuing graduate courses at night.