The last several months of writing I had been driving to my interviews with parents, encircled within a sense of contradiction. I knew I was going to be hearing stories depicting the darkest time in parents’ lives, yet I was traveling to hear those heartbreaking narratives through truly awe-inspiring landscapes. The sky had been its most clear and brilliantly blue; the turning leaves boasting breathtaking hues of gold and orange; the air, wonderfully soft; and the lively soun

The sky is a perfect blue and the air, both crisp and soft, a combination reflecting autumn’s beginning and the tail end of late summer. Shirt-sleeved neighbors and the sounds of playing children dot the landscape of this neighborhood. Dion opens to my knock; we greet each other and he leads me into the kitchen area to set up. I place myself at the table so that I can look outside through the kitchen’s patio door because I’m drawn to the backyard – a place that appears design