When I Was Four, My Mother Left Me Alone in a Church—Twenty Years Later She Returned Crying, “We Need You”

They did not leave me with Florence.

They left me in a church and hoped somebody decent would deal with the consequence.

The fact that somebody extraordinary eventually did does not transform abandonment into sacrifice.

Florence gets credit for Florence.

My parents do not.

That distinction mattered more than anger.

It restored accurate ownership of the good part of my childhood.

Florence stayed.