The same songs before bed.

A small calendar marked the next visit from Patricia and the next review hearing.

Some days the routine fell apart by nine in the morning.

We started again anyway.

A family, I discovered, wasn’t a house full of happy pictures.

It was a house where a difficult day did not mean anyone had to leave.

PART 11

My carpentry shop had supported one person comfortably and five children not at all comfortably.