“Who do you think you are, a super star, well, right you are.” That’s how my brother, Ward, was—an asterisk or a star. More than that, he was a star-giver. Everyone received his attention. As soon as he could, he explored the ‘other side of the tracks,’ the black...

Aren’t we loads of those we have lost? Take the word, loads. Every birthday card from Aunt Mary, the invalid next door, was signed, loads. I have been sending her loads ever since I learned to write my name. Here she is in the center of the picture before she became...

  February 21st was her birthday. I read his letters to her again, but don’t have hers. What did her letters say? Is someone reading them now, too? She turned her disasters, disappointments. Yes, turned them literally. Into something? Not necessarily. But if she...