Letting Hannah decide whether to read a letter.

Letting her decide which photographs to hang and which keepsakes to keep.

Letting her decide, at her own pace and in her own words, how she wanted to talk about her mother and her family and herself.

Every one of those small returned choices was a way of telling her, without saying it, that her story belonged to her again, that no one would ever again be permitted to write over her without her consent.

I could not undo what had been done.