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“Another revelation: how much laughter is a part of grief. Laughter is tightly braided into our family argot, and now we laugh remembering my father, but somewhere in the background there is a haze of disbelief. The laughter trails off. The laughter becomes tears and becomes sadness and becomes rage. I am unprepared”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Notes on Grief

“My greatest hope is that having known you were so loved as a child that you will be able to choose for your friends and companions people who love you for your own true self. That you will know how to give yourself a happier, kinder, more supportive and loving life than I knew how to give myself. Because I grew up with parents who did not know how to express their love for me, never having been given love themselves when they were children, I didn’t know how to give myself a loving, nurturing life as a grown-up. I pray that though I didn’t get to stay with you nearly long enough that somehow I have been able to help you feel so loved and valued in the time we had together that you will know that you are worthy to be loved and nurtured as an adult and that you, in turn, will be able to freely express your love and caring for others.”
― Genevieve Kingston, Did I Ever Tell You?

“I felt I’d gotten the interaction all wrong. I wanted her to wake up and ask me the right questions. I would have told her that I knew she’d done the best she could, the best anyone could. I would have told her that I felt guilty every day about the hours I spent away from her, about the times I wanted to be away from her and the horrible, stupefying sadness that filled the room where she was slowly losing herself. I would have told her I felt guiltiest of all that part of me wanted this to finally be over, so I could begin to remember her the way she used to be, instead of the way she was now. But her eyes stayed closed.”
― Genevieve Kingston, Did I Ever Tell You?

“Did I ever tell you” had become my five favorite words. They signaled that I was about to be transported, carried on the magic of someone else’s words, into the past.”
― Genevieve Kingston, Did I Ever Tell You?