I wanted direction, some practical advice that I could use to help me care for my newborns. After about the tenth time she told me I would figure it out, I finally realized that she wasn’t being coy. She genuinely did not remember. All those kids. All that laundry. All those feedings in the middle of the night. We were a blur to her now. She had been so overwhelmed by all of us—or by the gin and Valium—that the memories of those delicate, precious days had disappeared.
