I’ve got a new essay, “Home Range,” in the spring/summer issue of South 85 Journal. If you’ve launched a kid into the world and/or lost a parent, you might relate. Here’s a taste:
The summer my mother crossed out of our lives, my son and I hit the road. It was 2021, a year of absences, the pandemic eating through routines and plans. My daughter, my oldest child, had left for college and some semblance of dorm life the fall before, though her classes were mostly remote. My son, my youngest, was about to start his senior year of high school….
To let a child move out into the world, you make space for the knowledge that you can’t protect them. Disaster—megafires, insurrections—can overtake anyone, at home or a continent or world away. Planning our westward jaunt, I kept this to myself, trusting that the young tend not to think this way. If they did, they might never leave.
