PART 17: A Different Kind of Home

The first change I made to the house was small.

I took down the enormous portrait Mark had commissioned for the living room.

It showed him standing behind me with one hand on my shoulder, as though he were presenting an award he’d already won.

For years I’d told myself it was a lovely photograph because we were both smiling.

Now I remembered how he’d insisted on choosing the frame, the placement, even the photographer.