Kindred Kin

Our children met while teaching in Germany. His son is British; my daughter is American. He and I are both single parents, retired teachers and cheeky devils. Our children fell in love, got pregnant and married — all during Covid, so they had a Zoom wedding and baby shower. Meaning he and I became friends on WhatsApp and Signal before we finally met in person in England. I am more fond of the royals than he is (he thinks they are outdated, parasites on taxpayers). Still, we are kindred spirits, now with actual kin in common. Cheerio, y’all. — Felicia Carparelli

Life’s Only Guarantee

She felt as familiar as the household Hindi we both spoke. In high school, I barely mustered the courage to ask for her number. We comforted each other over the phone through college heartbreaks, swearing the other deserved better. Inseparable in medical school, we let our eight-year friendship blossom into more. We’d joke in Hindi, “Shaadi toh pakkee hai” (our marriage is guaranteed). I thought she was my future, but ambition and words left unspoken broke us apart. Uncertainty is life’s only guarantee. Although I don’t know what the future holds, I choose to embrace the possibility in the unknown. — Pranshu Bhardwaj

No Joke

My partner and I had a joke for ages where we’d say, “Will you mmmake me a sandwich?” or “Will you mmmove over?” — with the “m” sound drawn out. But when we got engaged there was no “Will you mmmarry me?” We were standing on the sidewalk crying about a play we’d just seen depicting the 2010 West Virginia mining disaster that tore apart the lives of people we had never met when she said, “I think we should get married.” After confirming that she was proposing, I of course said yes. — Alannah O’Hagan

Changing the World

Most babies look you in the face, but my son looked off to the side. As a toddler he fought something inside himself, and all my love could not help. He hated vacuum cleaners, the rip of duct tape, playground noises, flushing toilets. He struggled. I told him the world would not change for him; he must change for it. Perhaps I was wrong. Now grown, he helps children with learning disabilities. He is trying to change the world. When he leaves this fall for graduate school, his goodbye hug will leave me crying in the driveway. — ​​Jean Gordon Kocienda

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