What Remains When You Stop Pretending You Can Go Back

Sat, 17 Jan 2026 06:08:50 -0800

January 17, 2026—Middletown Springs, Vermont
Forty years ago, my parents bought my childhood home. I say that number out loud sometimes—forty years—because it still feels strange that something can stand that long and still be treated as disposable in the end.
For most of my life, it was simply understood that one day the house would be mine. Not as a gift. Not as a prize. …