Your Story, My Story

by Connie Palmen

but because she felt she was the property of a condescending matriarchy, in a permanent state of indebtedness she had to redeem with a successful life. Sometimes—in yet another attempt to work out the mystery of her death—I think that her suicide was also the ultimate way to reclaim her own life. The angry child demanded it like a snatched plaything. In her despair and rage, she forgot that others were tied to that life. The children, me.