Mom, stop acting childish. We already made plans.
I replied:
So did I.
Then I flipped my phone face down and enjoyed breakfast with my sister Carol in a quiet café in Maine. She looked at me across her coffee cup and smiled knowingly.
“You finally did it.”
“I feel terrible,” I admitted.
“No,” she corrected gently. “You just aren’t used to freedom yet.”
She was right.
After Robert died, helping Daniel filled the silence in my life. At first, it gave me purpose. Eventually, purpose turned into expectation. Then expectation turned into entitlement.
Madison stopped asking for favors long ago. She simply informed me.