We didn't think the library was funny looking in it's faux- Greek splendor, nor did we find the cuisine limited or bland, or the movies at the Michigan theater relentlessly American and mindless. These were opinions I came to later, after I became a denizen of a City, an expatriate anxious to distance herself from the bumpkin ways of her youth. I am suddenly consumed by nostalgia for the little girl who was me, who loved the fields and believed in God, who spent winter days home sick from school reading Nancy Drew and sucking menthol cough drops, who could keep a secret.

I guess no matter what your family is like, you're not surprised.

Henry loves my hair almost as though it is a creature unto itself, as though it has a soul to call its own, as though it could love him back.

‎I never wanted to have anything in my life that I couldn't stand losing. But it's too late for that.

The cure might be worse than the problem

...all of our laments could not add a single second to her life, not one additional beat of the heart, nor a breath.

…she smiles in an exhausted but warm sort of way, as though she is a brilliant sun in some other galaxy