Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow

“By the time I met Vita, I existed already in a form of maternal grieving, a refusal to accept that I had somehow lost my greatest love while still living alongside her.”
― Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow, All the Little Bird-Hearts

“Congratulations', that word that covers so many situations and that I cannot use in conversation, because it requires both substantial consideration and in-depth prior knowledge. People seem thrilled to hear it in the proper context, but this term demands an understanding of their very private desires. How can you always know that they even want the outcome for which you are congratulating them? What if they are embarrassed by the specific change and you draw uncomfortable attention to them by celebrating it? It is impossible to know another person's unspoken wants, and, conversely, to guess at their secret horrors, too.”
― Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow, All the Little Bird-Hearts