For Years I Resented the Homeless Boy My Mother Fed. After Her Funeral, He Revealed the Secret She Had Kept From Me.

She had been trying to answer too many needs with too little money, sometimes badly.

She had failed me in one important way: she never explained that I was safe and loved, even when another person needed help.

I opened a fresh notebook and wrote two sentences.

Mom was generous.

Mom hurt me.

Both were true.