Feed Them Silence

by Lee Mandelo

“When I struggle with whether our relationship is still good for us, my concern isn’t focused on ‘what will the neighbors think.’ Instead I’m worried, am I going to be able to survive losing this, or will sustaining it be the thing that kills me.”

wasn’t holding her flesh-and-blood wife, but the ghost of a future loss.

The pain was out there somewhere, but impersonal—nothing for them to repent about, get eaten up inside over.