Katherine
Mahon
Holmes
writes

This morning, I handed her another teddy bear graham cracker. It dances a wobbly performance in her sweet little fingers—then it’s popped into her mouth, crunched up by her back teeth, she’s just discovered. Later, I was listening to an interview with Jon Stewart and Graham Plattner, who is running for the Maine State Senate. Somewhere between the two, the graham cracker and the interview, my brain made one of those connections that don’t really matter, except that it does. W

My friend, who is more than a friend, is my chosen neighbor. My chosen family. A driveway and a small hill sit between us. An easy ninety-second walk. She was supposed to turn a large shed into an office for her counseling practice. That was the plan. We had it placed on my land during a time when plans still felt like something you could count on. But life moved faster than that. The pandemic shifted everything. She skipped right past the office and built herself a home. Jus

It is evening, the end of a long day moving my son into his new apartment. Returning the Uhaul truck, I turn right, up Cove Street. A woman is walking down the street. Her hair is light brown and long, to the bottom of her shoulder blades. A little frizzy in this 60-70 degree early June evening air, in Portland, Maine. There is a pleasant cool breeze that catches it. She pushes her grocery cart filled with what I imagine everything she owns, heading for Marginal Way, where th