Carol, thank you for this important essay. When I am asked what books had the most impact on my life, Motherless Daughters is one of the top three. I was in my mid-20s when it came out, and I gobbled it up, trying to convince myself that I was reading to try to figure out my mother, whose father died when she was 2 and whose mother died when she was 13. But in reality, I was reeling. My own mother left our family when I was 16, leaving my dad and my 11-year-old sister and me. She went to live in a studio apartment (in other words, no sleepovers) and showed up occasionally for family events - birthdays, holidays, graduations. I did not truly have a relationship with her again until she decided, when I graduated from college, that it was time for her to reemerge. And I didn’t understand why I was so furious at her. I had no idea at the time of her departure that it was anything more than the typical 70s divorce; it took decades for me to parse all of it out, and in that time work to better understand my mother and her motivations. She died relatively young, leaving us again, when she was 68, now 22 years ago. I have so much more compassion for her now, imagining what it must have been like to be orphaned with no resources to help her manage her grief as a 13-year-old. She was still dealing with it when she left us. And watching my own children lose their father when they were teens has taught me so much more. I am deeply indebted to Hope Edelman for helping to open my eyes to motherloss, in all its forms.