How Writing Brought My Daughter and Me Closer

By Rebecca Rolland 

Last Christmas morning, trying to ignore the dreary weather and the even drearier pandemic-induced quarantine, I told my nine-year-old daughter Sophie I had a present for her—but it wasn’t edible, and I hadn’t bought it. I handed her three double-spaced pages.  

“I wrote you a story,” I said. 

“You what?” she asked. “But I don’t like to read.” 

Still, she sat and read for a minute. Then she laughed. 

“The vlute!” she said. “Like the one Paul plays in the sh...