The Crab Man Was Right: How I Learned to Let Go

I pressed the cell phone to my ear, even though I knew it would do little to improve the overseas connection.

“It was cholera,” my daughter Nina said.

“Cholera?” I repeated, hoping I hadn’t heard right.

“I’m fine now, Mommyo” she said, unfazed, her voice upbeat as she described the lime/salt concoction that nurses had given her. In spite of that setback, Nina fell in love with Cameroon, the host country for most of my daughter’s sophomore year in college. She picked up the language quickly an...