Smoking in the girls’ room, sneaking a drink, napping
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Maria Black returned to school in her fifties to earn an MFA and now runs a writing group from her home in western Massachusetts. Though she has a devoted husband, kind children, and an obedient dog, she still worries, complains, and bites her fingernails.
MARK HOHN, a handwritten sign said. DEC. 19, 2013. 17 YRS. Here’s what struck me like a bus. It happened to be Dec. 19. He’d died exactly two years earlier. I sat on the ground before the cross and told myself to pay attention, that this was no coincidence.
The last time I’d seen Madame was right after I returned from Hazelden, a fancy drug- and alcohol-rehab center in Minnesota. It was now a year later, and my birthday, but considering the circumstances you’d think I wouldn’t have to remind her not to buy me wine.