Instead she wrote about her new apartment, the bird feeder outside her window, and an elderly neighbor who brought soup when she had a cold.

Then came a paragraph that made me set the letter down.

I used to believe a family was a place where everyone knew their position.

I thought I was at the top because I had been there longest.

Walter tried to tell me that being cared for did not make me the owner of the person doing the caring.

I did not listen to him, and I did not listen to you.

She did not apologize perfectly.