I Thought I’d Face Graduation Alone After Losing Both My Parents-Then Someone Suddenly Covered My Eyes

The house always smelled like cinnamon and old paper, even in the months after the funeral.

Before November, that smell had meant weekends at Nana Mae’s house, banana pancakes, and falling asleep beneath the quilt she had sewn when I was born. After November, it meant my parents were gone, and I was living in the bedroom that had once belonged to my continue reading …