Then he left her there, standing alone, surrounded by word ghosts; things she could have said.

She'd been criticized for holding the reins of parenthood too tightly, of controlling her children too completely, but she didn't know how to let go. From the moment she'd first decided to become a mother, it had been an epic battle.

It occurred to her suddenly, sharply, that she wanted to be in love... She wanted not to feel so damned alone in the world.

Stacey: "I'm surprised you haven't thrown me out." Comfort: "At your current weight, I'd need some sort of catapult.

When you get . . . to the end, you see that love and family are all there is. Nothing else matters.

Lately he'd been seen going out less and less, becoming that strangest of animals in a small town: a loner.

We women. as glue for the family. lead lives that are important and conflicted. What we women choose to give up for our families is important and valid.