My Doctor Said Stay in Bed. I Was Already on the Pacific Coast Highway. When I Got to the House I’d Built for My Parents’ Anniversary, My Brother-in-Law Was Evicting Them. I Laughed in His Face and Said: “You Have Exactly One Hour to Leave.”

My mother called me the first week they were properly settled, early in the morning before I was fully awake.

“I made coffee,” she said, as though I were there. “I made it in the kitchen.”

I understood exactly what she meant.

There is a particular satisfaction in watching something you built be used by the people you built it for, a satisfaction that continue reading …