“She wasn’t alone all the time,” Diane said.

“People helped.

That’s important.

Don’t turn her life into a story about a brave abandoned woman who somehow did everything by herself.

She built a community.”

I thanked her for correcting me.

I had already begun constructing an easy narrative in my head, one in which Marianne’s strength made my absence less damaging.

Diane refused to let me use it.