I lingered on that word, “orphan.” An orphan was always a person without parents, without roots. I had one parent, and one was not none. Orphan (noun) 1: a young animal that has lost its mother 2: one deprived of some protection or advantage, such as “orphans of the storm” 3: a child deprived by death of one or usually both parents But the condition isn’t mathematical. The loss is what creates the condition. It’s not the fact of one parent, but that the loss has occurred. It’s the wound, not the parts that are left untouched.
