They sang the words in unison, yet somehow created a web of sounds with their voices. It was like hearing a piece of fabric woven with all the colors of a rainbow. I did not know that such beauty could be formed by the human mouth. I had never heard harmony before.

I am so honored to be the vessel into which you pour this story of pain and strength.

I would have stayed forever within the garden of Re-mose's childhood, but time is a mother's enemy.

I pray I die before they day comes when I do not know if my sons are infants or grandfathers.

It's a good thing babies don't give you a lot of time to think. You fall in love with them and when you realize how much they love you back, life is very simple.

There's nothing quite like a real . . . train conductor to add color to a quotidian commute

It's a wonder that any mother ever called a daughter Dinah again. But some did. Maybe you guessed that there was more to me than the voiceless cipher in the text. Maybe you heard it in the music of my name: the first vowel high and clear, as when a mother calls to her child at dusk; the second sound soft, for whispering secrets on pillows. Dee-nah.