One of my favorite photos of my mom growing up. She was compassionate and kind and silly.

My mom died five years ago from cancer. It came back in January of that year, or maybe it never really went away at all. It ate her slowly, and then all at once. I sang her Simon and Garfunkel songs at the end. That’s what we listened to the most. My brother and I counted her pulse and tried to decide at which precise moment the dying happened. Afterwards, I wrote that grief was like an indent of something h...