Seven Years After My Daughter’s Funeral, I Followed Her Husband to a Rehabilitation Center—And Saw a Woman I Thought Was Dead

Dorothy would remain absent from every new family photograph.

None of those realities disappeared because Melissa was alive.

But we could still have afternoons like this.

Cookies.

School stories.

A little laughter.

One ordinary memory at a time.

As evening approached, Melissa asked to go back to Havenwood.