These memories are mine
Hello! Guest post—but I'll let the content be its own introduction. Of course, there are “good” memories. Times when the little girl who didn’t understand who he was—or anyone was—felt cared for. What is my responsibility in regard to those memories? I am not interested in constructing a fictional person in memory, when I know the acts that offered interest or kindness were structured by someone else. He would never have thought to sit and read a child a chapter book without having been directly told to. He would never have apologized for berating her to tears, were he not instructed to. The acts that seem to represent some positive portion of our experience together don’t really have any relation to the will of the person who left. But, they do have value as times I practiced feeling as though I could rely on someone, without connection to that missing person as an individual. With the insight of years gone past, it’s become clear those times were mistaken, but they were still pr...