And yet some things had stayed the same. Iris had seemed undefeated; undeterred by the grief that had suddenly infused her life. She’d outlived both her sister and her niece. Yet she’d been compelled to go on; to never allow death to stop her from being the woman she’d wanted to be.
But he had changed. The loss had made him more world-weary for a time, as he’d tried to come to terms with the unalterable absence of his parents – parents who, over the course of his life, he’d found himself increasingly distanced from, sometimes for weeks or even months at a time. It had changed him in other ways too; perhaps imperceptibly at first. He’d been determined to hold on more tightly to the people who meant something to him. To his friendships; including the ones he’d maintained even after dropping
