Children's cards are the best. The ones made of construction paper and glue, signed in crayon by a child's small hand. TO THE BEST MOTHER IN THE HOLE WIDE WORLD. HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY…

He's been grown and gone for so long that sometimes I think I dreamed him. Even his room is kind of gone - the striped gold wallpaper scraped off years ago, the trophies on his bureau, the signed baseballs, the football pennants, all stuffed in a box somewhere. Now the walls are painted yellow and the comforter is white and the curtains are lace…