Read “To Have and Hold,” Creative Nonfiction, in The Phare

Marriage late in life is like walking a tightrope without a net. A misstep could be fatal, a break may not have time to mend. A lover’s past can create a distance impossible to close. When two people meet after decades of life lived—children raised, goals achieved or abandoned, loves that failed—time has a way of eroding the details, muting their power. Sharing the things that made us who we are becomes an exercise in futility, like reporting from the front when the battle is over. We omit ugly details, reapportion blame, pretend something is over when it’s not. Stories told through a sieve. https://www.thephare.com/tohaveandhold