I woke up from the coma and heard my son whisper, “Don’t open your eyes”… my husband and my own sister were waiting for me to d!e so they could take everything.

and I moved into a small place with bright windows, quiet mornings, and a backyard just big enough for a tree.

He planted it himself.

“So it grows with you, Mom,” he said, pressing soil around the roots with both hands.

Sometimes, fear still finds me.

Sometimes I wake in the dark and remember what it felt like to hear people planning my death while I lay continue reading …