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Sophie Dunn spun away froht She can’t be dead She can’t be”
The door swung open, and alked Millie’s distraught daughter through the entranceway to a sitting rooeonto a high city view
She circled the roo out denials
“This isn’t right I don’t believe this How did this happen?” Then she stopped circling and, with tears strea down her cheeks, said directly to me, “I always hoped that one day I would have my mother back Do you understand?”
And then, wiping her face with her sleeve, Sophie Dunn collapsed into a chair
When ere seated across froain how sorry ere, that we had known Millie and why
I said, “Ms Dunn, I’h she was homeless”
Sophie got up, paced soether enough to confirm what Conklin had learned at the shelter Millie’s street life had begun after her husband’s death By the time Sophie was in her teens, Millie was on the street more than she was home
“I haven’t seen her in over a year,” Millie’s daughter told us, “but e last spoke, she seeive anyone her last nickel I can’t even iainst her But as I’m sure you know, a lot of street people have mental illnesses My mother included”
She got up, went to the bookshelf, and came back to her chair with a framed photo taken in front of this fireplace
I got a glimpse of a family of four: mom, dad, two kids Normal as could be
Conklin asked, “Sophie, did your brother stay in touch with your mom?”
“Michael? He hardly stays in touch with ot divorced, and kind of lives a s He never mentions her”
“We’ll need to speak to him,” Rich said
Sophie began crying again She apologized, left the room, and returned a minute later with tissues and a Post-it note