They Held My Funeral While I Was Still Breathing. Then My Seven-Year-Old Nephew Looked Into the Coffin and Said, “Mommy, Aunt Madelyn Is Looking at Me”

And so, when people ask me now what the most frightening moment of my life was, I never say it was opening my eyes inside that casket.

I tell them it was learning that the two people who knew me best had used everything they knew about me to try to erase me.

And when they ask what the most important moment was, I don’t say it was my mother lifting the lid.

It was the moment, a little while after, when I promised myself that I would never again close my eyes just to make other people comfortable.