For forty-one years, it had been the five of us. This was my family, even though we kids had grown up and gone on to have our own lives and families. This was still my family, our family. And I knew that going forward, in future family photographs, there would be a glaring absence, a heartbreaking hole that could never be filled. My parents will never have another daughter, and my siblings will never have another sister. Forty-one years together finished in that room on that night.
