“Yes.”Child development resources
“Did Mom die believing Laura was still missing?”
He covered his face.
“Yes.”
That nearly broke me.
My mother had died twelve years earlier.
Until the end, she kept Laura’s photograph beside her bed.
“She waited for her.”
“I know.”
“You let her wait.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
Dad cried then.
I had almost never seen him cry.
“Because I was ashamed.”
I stared at him.
“When Laura left, I blamed myself.”
He wiped his face.
“When she came back, she had a child. She was struggling. She was angry. I thought if I let her back in, every wound would open again.”
“So you decided for all of us.”
“Yes.”
“You decided I didn’t deserve my sister.”
“No.”
“That Mom didn’t deserve her daughter.”
“No.”
“That Dolly didn’t deserve grandparents.”
“Margaret…”
“That is exactly what you decided.”
He couldn’t argue.
He had been afraid.
