“I thought you were.”
The silence that followed was heartbreaking.
Beth explained that she’d stopped asking about Richard when she was a teenager because she hated watching Janet struggle.
She wanted stories about his childhood, his favorite foods, even the arguments her parents had.
But whenever she mentioned him, Janet’s face changed.
“So I stopped,” Beth said. “I thought that was what you needed.”
Janet began crying.
“Oh, sweetheart.”
Beth wiped her face.
“I barely remember his voice anymore, Mom. Sometimes I try to remember what he sounded like when he laughed, and I can’t.”
Janet reached across the table.
“I thought I was protecting you.”
“I know,” Beth said. “But I needed to remember him with you.”
I’d spent four years thinking Richard’s absence from their home concealed some terrible family secret.
Instead, I was watching two people discover they’d spent 13 years hiding their grief from each other.
