On things I never used to know
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After the fireflies
We are sitting on the porch, Jessica and I, watching the fireflies. We do this every summer night, poignant for me, a happy tradition for her. Last year, at this time, the neurosurgeon was telling us about an unexpected finding on Jessica’s MRI and proposing what sounded to me then, and still does, like a…
Travels with Jessica
Jessica is in many ways an amazing child, but her brain does not have an executive function, or if it does, it’s like one of my former bosses, out on a three-martini lunch most days. She cannot intuit or deduct but she can memorize and extrapolate. Which means that I have to do all the…
On what a true gift is
So Jessica is off to be with her father for a few days and though I do not immediately close the door behind her and yell “Yee-haw!” before laying in supplies of 1800, I would be lying if I said I don’t adore having some time and space to myself. I would also be lying if I did…
Story time at the library
Every other Thursday evening, I bring Jessica to the library so we can listen to the storyteller. Miss Linda is a gentle woman of late middle age, with the quietly expressive voice of an experienced kindergarten teacher. Though all of the other children who come to listen are much younger, Jessica doesn’t seem to notice or…
On how we wait
Jessica has just come home from her father’s house, and I have already had her lecture on my terrible eating habits (“I made you a menu,” she has informed me. “Why did you eat popcorn and cookies all week?”) and already she has drawn up a new menu full of healthful foods and we have…
On how we are free
Years ago, Jessica had a big plastic castle that she got for Christmas, and a number of princess figures that fit inside. One day she came to me and she said, “I let all of the princesses out of the castle and now they are free!” She was beyond excited; she was thrilled. And…