Not because I am ashamed of it.

Because I cannot look at it without going back, and for two years I did not have the strength to go back, because I was already spending everything I had just to get Nia to school in the morning and myself through the night.

A man can only carry so many hard things at once.

I had set the medal down so that I could carry my daughter.

It seemed, and still seems, like the right trade.

Chapter 13 — Not to My Family