I was in the middle of folding a quilt when my phone buzzed on the kitchen counter.
I almost didn’t check it.
I was at the lake house, my place, the one I bought with my own money 31 years ago when the market was soft and my ex-husband thought I was being impulsive.
I had been deliberately leaving my phone facedown all weekend.
The trees were starting to turn. The birches along the water had gone yellow overnight, that sharp, clean yellow you only get in October in Ontario.
I had been trying to simply look at them without documenting anything.
But the buzz was followed by another buzz and then a third.
My daughter-in-law’s name was on the screen.
I set down the quilt and picked up the phone.
Hi, Loretta. Just wanted to let you know we’ve decided to do Christmas dinner at your place this year. Already told the whole family it’s happening there. So exciting. Nathan said you’d be fine with it. Thirty-six people. December 25. We’ll handle the guest list. You just need to handle the food and the house. So fun.
I read it twice.
Not because I didn’t understand it.
I understood it perfectly.
I read it twice because I was deciding, very deliberately, what kind of woman I was going to be during the next 30 seconds.
I typed back:
That’s news to me. I’ll be in Sudbury visiting my sister through Boxing Day. You’ll want to find a new venue.
Then I placed the phone facedown again and returned to the quilt.
I want to be clear that I did not feel calm.
My hands were trembling in small, tight movements, the way they do when I am working hard to keep something contained.
What happened next changed everything… FULL STORY on the next page.
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