Status Updates From The Christmas Letters

And you know what I think Mama was looking for, that very last time I saw her? I think she was still looking for some clue as to what had become of Joe, searching in the only places she could search, the little familiar nooks and crannies of the life he once had shared with them but then could share no longer.

See what I just wrote? Taking care. Taking care of Andrew, taking care of Sandy. Isn't that interesting? A person reading back through these letters might decide that my life has been largely a function of other people's lives, and that would be true too, or at least it would not be untrue.

There is the thing about a parent's death-especially the second parent's death— suddenly there is no other person standing between you and the great beyond, that dark-ness, the grave. I know I sound morbid, but it has been such an illuminating insight for me that I have to share it with you. Listen: the time is now. We are the next in line.

Hope to begin this today. But my own Christmas cars & letters come first!

I have made my bed and I will lie in it. The way I was talked, you may rest assured of that.