My parents refused to care for my younger kids while I tended to my oldest with leukemia; I called my ex-husband, but he said: “You’re just a poor writer, deal with it”

“Theo, hold the phone higher,” she ordered.

“Wyatt, that’s not how you build it.”

She was the kind of big sister who could run the whole family from a hospital bed with a port in her chest.

I watched her scold Wyatt about his blocks and thought: that is a girl who still has plans.

I didn’t yet understand how much Angela was going to matter.

I thought she was just the nurse who brought pudding.

For once, I was wrong in the good direction.

I learned to become two