They missed Maya.

And that is a loss I would not wish on anyone.

I try, when I think about all this, to stay honest about one more thing, which is that raising Maya is not a fairy tale, and I do her no honor by pretending it is.

There are hard days.

There is work, real work, therapies and appointments and the ordinary exhausting labor of parenting any small child, plus the particular attentions her needs require.

I am not a saint and she is not a symbol; we are a father and a daughter, living an actual life, with all the difficulty any actual life contains.