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

She chose that herself.

The first time she said it naturally, without asking, she was nine.

“Can Aunt Nora come?”

I was in the next room.

I stopped breathing for a second.

Then continued setting the table.

I did not make it a ceremony.

Titles mean more when no one forces them.