I raised my fiancé’s ten children after he walked out on us — thirty years later, his lawyer showed up at my door and said, “He asked me to give you this envelope today.”

“Margaret, listen to me,” she said after I told her. “This is a sign. Let the system take the children. You are young and still have a life ahead of you.”

“They’re upstairs, Mama.”

“They are not your responsibility.”

“I can’t send them away.”

“Don’t be foolish!”

“I said I can’t.”

She hung up.

She wasn’t the only naysayer.

By the end of the week, my aunt had continue reading …