PROEM

She’d often made it difficult, but I did love my mom beyond measure. Before learning she had died, I don’t believe I’d ever actually shrieked over any-fucking-thing in my life—that’s saying a lot. On 8 November, 2017, at three-something in the afternoon, the sound that erupted from my lungs and out of my mouth was utterly empty, yet it carried a weight of pain that unequivocally transcends my comprehension to this day. The woman who gave birth to me—the woman I’d admired in the face of animosity, and who I’d always defended against abusers breathed no more.

I miss my mom’s smile most of all. That genuine, life giving smile she had in spite of the shit she had to live with was…well, it was goddamned gorgeous. Her eyes, I swear, projected light when she was happy. My baby niece’s eyes have that same magic—sweet babe born just…