Then I made tea and opened the notebook where I kept our family memories.

I wrote about the visit: the lopsided cookies, Robert’s laugh, Evelyn’s nervous kindness, Tristan’s flour-covered shirt, and Mason’s observation on the way home.

I wrote honestly about my own mixed feelings too.

When I finished, I closed the notebook and looked at the photograph we’d taken that afternoon.

It showed my sons in the middle, all four laughing at something Caleb had said.

The adults around them looked a little awkward.