One of my twin daughters passed away three years ago, but on her first day of first grade, her teacher remarked, “Both of your daughters are excellent students.”

little girl who simply happened to possess a face identical to the child I buried. Nothing extra and nothing dark. Simply the specific harshness and beauty of random chance.

And in a way, getting that proven in ink and paper granted me a thing I had not been capable of locating in thirty-six months of attempting: the final farewell I never managed to continue reading …