Shred Sisters

by Betsy Lerner

remembered a radio interview with a woman who had been in the French Resistance and had had many affairs. “What else is life for?” she said in a knowing, world-weary way. “Never making love is returning a present unopened.”

I marveled at his confidence. He never wondered or worried about what people thought of him.

I had read in a women’s magazine that having someone ask how you are every day boosts the immune system. Did the coffee man count?

Then, hugging me tight, she whispered in my ear, “I remember the second thing my therapist said: you have to forgive yourself.”