Then She Was Gone

by Lisa Jewell

“As the father of your children, as a friend, as someone who shared a journey with you and as someone who loves you and cares about you. I don’t need to be married to you to be all those things. Those things are deeper than marriage. Those things are forever.”

I remember being twenty-one and thinking that my personality was a solid thing, that me

was set in stone, that I would always feel what I felt and believe what I believed. But now I know that me is fluid and shape-changing.