A mother is a story with no beginning. That is what defines her.

A mother is the portal by which you enter the world.

What had happened still seemed implausible. A person was present your entire life, and then one day she disappeared and never came back. It resisted belief.

I'm not much like my mother; that role falls to my brothers, who have more of her blithe and freewheeling spirit.

But when my mother died, I found that I did not believe that she was gone.

And after my mother's death I became more open to and empathetic about other people's struggles and losses.

What's endlessly complicated in thinking about women's gymnastics is the way that vulnerability and power are threaded through the sport.