I can remember having a conversation with her in the early seventies about the nature of love like the fictional dialogue between Hannah and Eva Peace. A grown-up woman trying to understand “this thing called love,” I was taking a critical look at my relationship with my father. I told Mama I did not feel Daddy loved me. And she told me, “Of course he loves you. He’s taken care of all your needs all these years.” Tears overwhelmed my words as I tried to explain to her that love was more than meeting someone’s material needs—that it was about respect, care, knowledge, and responsibility. I was
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