“I Opted Out of Christmas This Year — And My Son Didn’t See What Was Coming”

invisible in the narrative of the holiday I’d created, as absent from the story as if I’d never existed at all. I was the stage crew, not the cast. The support staff, not the family. The means to an end, not a person worthy of acknowledgment.

I didn’t say anything then, of course. I just smiled as they hugged me goodbye, accepted their vague promises continue reading …