The grief was a fog I couldn’t see through. My mother, Roslin, and my older brother, Steve, became my anchors.

We had always been a tight-knit trio. My father died when I was young, and Mom raised us on her own. Steve, five years my senior, had sacrificed his own childhood to help, playing with me after school so I wouldn’t feel lonely while Mom worked. When I became a single mother before my child was even born, they didn’t hesitate. They insisted I move back into the family home.