I Became “Mom” to My Grandchildren When Their Mother Walked Away — Sixteen Years Later, She Returned

choices—about the choice she’d made to leave, to stay away, to send sporadic checks instead of showing up. But what good would that do now?

“What do you want, Laura?”

She wrapped her hands around her coffee cup like she needed the warmth. “I want to know my children. I want them to know me—the person I am now, not the person I was. I’m not asking to continue reading …