spent so much of my life putting my family first that I forgot who I was outside of caring for everyone else. Looking back now, I can see the signs were there long before everything I thought I knew came apart.
Despite being all the way in the living room, I could smell the faint starch of Howard’s shirts, already pressed and lined up in the closet down the hall. I sat on the couch in the soft gray light before sunrise, rubbing lotion into my hands, which never seemed to stay soft anymore.
I was 56 years old and knew the layout of my house better than my own face.
