I thought about a conversation we’d had, right before she died. Brother, you remember when we were kids, and we used to draw winter counts, like they did in the old days? Yeah, I guess so. Winter counts were the calendar system used by the Lakota, but they weren’t like modern ones. I’d loved the little pictures in the calendars, each image showing the most significant event from the past year. Sybil and I used to make our own with paper and crayons when we were kids. Do you remember what symbol we used for the year Mom died? Why do you ask? Because it’s important to remember. It’s no big deal.
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