Two Strangers Knocked During a Christmas Outage. The Moment They Gave Their Names, I Knew Something Was Wrong.

about it was fine. But I let the sentence exist. I let the name exist in the air between us. Beth. A woman who had carried me, given birth to me, and died before I could know her. A woman who had been erased by other people’s choices and circumstances.

That night, after the kids were asleep, I sat at my kitchen table in the restored electric light and continue reading …