Eleanor asked whether she could write each of them a letter.

I agreed to pass the envelopes along if she sent them without demands or guilt.

She promised she would.

Her letters arrived the next week.

She apologized for stopping the birthdays.

She wrote about the year she used to bake apple pies with them and included a photograph of them standing on stools at her kitchen counter.

There was no explanation that blamed me.

Nathan read his twice and set it beside his bed.