I was not yet a teenager, twelve in fact, and had no other family, so I was placed in a foster home in the next county. Lizanne never called me after the funeral. I heard it said that she didn’t want to be near anyone who had someone die in their house. She thought it awful that I had found my Grandma dead in her bed. I thought, though I was tremendously sad, there was no better way for my Grandma to pass.

I finished high school with no friends. My counselor said that I was too smart to not go further in school. For that reason I enrolled at the local community college. My foster parents couldn’t afford it, so I got a job sewing clothes at a dry cleaner who also offered alterations. I had learned to sew from my Grandma and I thought of her often as I stitched a hem or tucked a seam. I missed her all the time.

After finishing my first two years, I moved away to go to Oberlin College, in Ohio.