Mrs. Nash's Ashes Quotes

“sometimes, if we’re lucky, beginnings and endings are choices we get to make.”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“I suddenly understand that forever isn’t the part that I almost lost faith in. It was the millions of right-nows along the way.”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“he doesn’t try to argue or manipulate me out of my weirdness. In fact, he seems to look for ways to make me more comfortable in it.”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“Because watching you exist in the world, trusting and loving and beautifully strange . . . it makes these feelings even heavier, yet somehow easier to bear.”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“Well, what can I do?” I ask. Hollis chuckles, but there isn’t much humor in the sound. “To change my personality? Nothing. Many people have tried, none have succeeded. I’m like a haunted house. They go in very brave and confident, but they always run away screaming.”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“There are a lot of things that don’t go your way over ninety-some years, she told me once when I asked how she remained so unaffected by it. You learn to take it in stride and be extra grateful for the things that do.”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“But what do promises really mean in the grand scheme of things? When it comes down to it, a promise is little more than an earnest intention; I’ve learned that the universe tends to laugh at those and do its own thing anyway.”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“I have never once claimed to make sense as a person. And I would appreciate it if you would stop remarking on my idiosyncrasies as if you’ve caught me in some continuity error.”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“Maybe that’s why I’m so willing to think the best of people. I don’t want to assume malice when mostly we’re all just victims of the universe’s whims.”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“Of course there are ways. Women who love women and men who love men have existed forever, formed families of their own. But society isn’t eager to embrace them. It doesn’t hand them their dreams on a platter. They have to fight for their happiness.”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“If I’m sunshine, he’s a constant low rumble of thunder.”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“You can always judge a person by the quality of their apology....”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“I barely knew you—we’d only met in passing a few times—but I could tell that you were this bright, sunshine sort of person. Seeing you cry . . . it’s like watching the sun flickering out. Like I’m getting a preview of the apocalypse. A horrible glimpse into a world that’s colder and darker—”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“have never once claimed to make sense as a person. And I would appreciate it if you would stop remarking on my idiosyncrasies as if you’ve caught me in some continuity error.”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“him”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“I slam the car door behind me and march to the side entrance of the McDonald’s. The glass door opens more easily than I expect, and the handle hits the brick wall, bouncing the door back into me and pushing me inside like I’m in some sort of vaudeville act. Hollis watches the whole embarrassing scene from the car, his eyebrows raised in what could be either confusion or amusement.”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“I am a competent adult woman who can handle whatever life throws at me. But I’m so glad I don’t have to prove it right now.”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“And I could take solace in the idea that transience—not endurance—is what makes connections between people special.”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“You must always do what is right for you, Millie. What is right for anyone else doesn’t matter, because you are the one who will live with your decisions.”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“You can always judge a person by the quality of their apology,”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“I hoped when she died that she might continue to exist inside my head, and she sort of does. I can see her vividly, but she never speaks unless it’s a replay of a memory. Because I am the one who would have to generate what she says now, and I know that any words I put into her mouth wouldn’t be hers. Just mine in disguise. Somehow that’s more depressing than her not talking at all.”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“Who cares what he thinks? You must always do what is right for you, Millie. What is right for anyone else doesn’t matter, because you are the one who will live with your decisions.”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“it’s like all of my grief and worry scatter to the recesses of my brain to make room for one blissful moment where nothing exists but joy and love and release.”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“I’ve already become so used to the way Hollis makes me lean into the strongest parts of myself that I forgot how easy it is to be stripped down to something faded and fragile.”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“His favorite. The word is like a surprise hug—warm and welcome, but briefly disorienting.”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“Like the scent version of reading your favorite book in a worn leather chair with a cup of Earl Grey tea while rain patters against the windowpane.”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“close my eyes to savor the way the sensation pulls at some intricate knot low in my stomach, threatening to unravel it.”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“I’d rather you have happiness with someone else than be miserable with me.”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“I usually panic while ordering anyway, so it’s easier not to decide on anything.”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes

“Excuse me, do you have something against Stevie Nicks?” “Her voice sort of gets on my nerves.”
― Sarah Adler, Mrs. Nash's Ashes