You broke my mother’s heart, my father’s heart, my sisters’ hearts. I still hear from people I thought were “your people,” so I suppose they’re my people, too. Sometimes I still wear the perfume I wore on our wedding day, because I like it. I’ve never felt better. I’ve never felt worse. Your absence has made the life I have now possible. In which case, thank you. I didn’t ask for more pain, but I received it—you sent it—and it changed me. Thank you.
