My mother is 65 and has no close friends, and what gets me is that she used to have so many — she was the one who organized everything, remembered every birthday, held the whole group together, and somewhere in being everyone’s reliable one she became the person none of them thought to keep
My mum is sitting at her kitchen table with a cup of tea going cold in front of her. It’s a Saturday. Her phone is face-up next to the sugar bowl, and it has not made a sound all afternoon. She isn’t waiting for it exactly. She’s just near it, the way you are near ... Read more