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

Do you love him?" How would I know?" You'd know.

Some stories don't have happy endings. Even love stories. Maybe especially love stories.

She had been ready to love this man from the moment she first saw him. In all these years, that had never changed. They'd hurt each other, let each other down, and yet, here they were after everything, together. She needed him now, needed him to remind her that she was live, that she wasn't alone, that she hadn't lost everything.

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.

And no one drank just one shot of tequila.

Time goes too quickly. This is the advice that my mother should have given me from her hospital bed. Instead of vague, unknowable quips like "Be careful what you wish for," she should have told me time slides away on a hillside of loose shale and takes everything in its path - dreams, opportunities, hopes. And youth. It takes that fastest of all.