Susan surprised me immediately.
“Claire, I didn’t know about the will.”
Neither had Rebecca.
Susan told me she had specifically said the previous year that whatever remained should eventually be divided among all three children.
Rebecca felt terrible about being included while Mark was excluded.
Then Susan told me something else.
The previous spring, she had suggested their parents tour a few independent-living communities simply to understand their options for the future.
Patricia had laughed.
“We won’t need anything like that,” she had told Susan. “Mark is right here.”
Suddenly, everything made sense.
Patricia hadn’t excluded Mark because she saw no role for him in their future.
She had built their future around him.
Susan and Rebecca didn’t heroically rush into Ohio and replace him.
Real life isn’t that tidy.
Instead, they began paying attention.
They asked for their parents’ appointment calendar.
They learned the doctors’ names.
