He sat with his wife’s photo, waiting for a son who had already boarded without him

woman who’d built a life around control and now stood in its hollow center.

“I am home,” I said clearly. “In Holton. With the people who remembered me before I had to earn it.”

Back in Kansas, I returned to my studies, my patients, and the porch where Grandpa once sat. I opened a reading circle for children and seniors. I kept the photo of him and me continue reading …