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"Lydia?" she asked as I stroked the brush down the length of her hair

"Yes, Moirls?"

I snation "Those are Margaret’s daughters, Julia and Hailey"

My hed "Oh, of course What’s the hters?"

"Mom, don’t worry Julia and Hailey knoho you are and that’s what’s inosis was official now Moressed, I knew there’d conized me I’d deal with it; I would have no choice I’d reraphs from the ’60s and ’70s, as the mother who’d walked rief-strickenand the old woman she was now And all the ?" Mom asked in a tentative voice

"Soon" My sister would come by sorateful for Margaret and the way taking care of Mothened the bond we shared as sisters

"She’s going to be a star," Mo about Margaret’s high-school days and her athletic success I was the brains of the faraduated withal cancer

After I finished brushing Mom’s hair, it was tiht down to the dining rooone, then locked her roo for me at Green Lake The three-mile walk around the lake was a favorite exercise ofwith excitement as he and Cody set off on their run

"How’s your ht about the question she’d asked ood spirits"

"I’onized over the decision to ain, and so soon after her lastshe’d been suffering fro for her and I’d never suspected

Brad and I started down the path, hands linked He talked about one thing and another, and I responded at the appropriate times, but my mind was in a dozen different places

I was thinking about Carol and her baby

Colette, too

It’d been a shock when she told nant And married! Needless to say, she’d moved out of the apart for a new tenant soon, and that was fine Susannah was going toin the flower shop, and she’d be there all su about Brad andPerhaps a baby would be unrealistic for us, but there are older children in need of a ho a conversation with Alix The state had declared her parents unfit and she’d been eligible for adoption Only she was too old, she’d said, for anyone to want her An older child--this was a possibility Brad and I needed to explore