My Mother-in-Law Left a Blue Notebook in Our Hallway Closet—After My Son Was Born, I Finally Learned What She Had Been Recording Inside It

No symbolic speech.

I did not tell the children:

You’re standing where Grandma’s notebook was found.

Places should be allowed to become ordinary again.

That became one of my definitions of recovery.

The closet became a closet.

The window became a window.

The nursery became Thomas’s room.