My Soldier Son Came Home After Five Years — And Found Me Scrubbing Floors While They Sat Watching

and less frequently as the years passed, his voice growing more distant with each brief conversation. Who had stopped responding to my carefully worded letters that never mentioned how things really were because I didn’t want to burden him while he was in danger. Who had become more of a memory than a real person, someone I’d begun to fear I might continue reading …