One afternoon in the early 1970s our family got takeout from McDonald’s. Dad was driving as always. Mom was in the front passenger seat. My sister and I were in the back seat. When my sister had her head turned, I snuck some of her French fries. She realized what I had done but I denied it. The barbs flew back and forth until my mother shouted at us. “You two need to get along! Someday it’s just going to be the two of you!” Mom died in 2020, Dad in 2022. I now hear her words loud and clear.
Lisa Braxton is the author of the award-winning memoir in essays, Dancing Between the Raindrops: A Daughter's Reflections on Love and Loss. Lisa will be part of Micro Marvels with Five Minutes and Molecule at the Salem Literary Festival in Massachusetts next month.