She nodded with relief.

‘Good.

I like our past.

Mostly.’

That evening I found the old enrollment documents in the same cabinet as the pregnancy letters.

There was my signature, written in a hand that had become steadier over the years.

Beside it were the names of four little children who once needed help fastening their shoes.

I had carried the burden of every official decision alone, and I was proud that I had done it.