The title had never mattered.
Family had.
Three months later, I reduced my work hours.
Six months later, I took my first vacation in nearly a decade.
A year later, I moved into the little cottage on weekends.
Sometimes I would sit on the porch drinking coffee.
Sometimes Mom joined me.
We would watch the sunset over the water.
Talk about nothing.
Talk about everything.
One evening I finally asked her something.
“Why did the nurse tell me?”
Mom laughed.
A mischievous laugh.
The kind I hadn’t heard in years.
“Because I asked her to.”
