My Parents Died Before Graduation and I Thought No One Would Be There for Me — Then Two Hands Covered My Eyes From Behind

That is what the seven months were made of.

Not the grocery lists.

The keeping-going, alone, when every cell in you is begging to be allowed, for one single night, to be the one who gets taken care of instead.

Chapter 5 — The Brother I Hadn’t Spoken To

There was one more person in our family, and his absence was a whole separate grief that I kept in a whole separate room.

Ethan.