The loose thread that holds us together
I was reading the New York Times Book Review this morning and one review starts off about a mother dying of cancer and about how the loss of a parent can unhinge the fissures that keep a family together. My family was patriarchal and so the hinge unhinged in 1985 when my father passed suddenly at 62 years of age. The fissures that are coming unhinged right now are just rusty vestiges of a family gone by.
It’s interesting to hear the next generation speak about these fissures. I’ve heard in other families, one member say, “I’m not sure what the falling out was about, but I know they never spoke afterwards.” And for someone like T, who grew up as an only child, she finds this so sad. But for someone like me that grew up in a large family, I find it common.