#half-orphans

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Adults were always trying too hard around me. They thought that if they were nice enough they could make up for the fact that I'd lost my mom. It was kind of sweet and horrible at the same time.

Jenna Evans Welch, Love & Gelato

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Tears flooded my eyes and I rolled over, pressing my face into my pillow. Now that it had been more than six months, I could sometimes go whole hours pretending to be okay without her. But it never lasted long. Turns out reality is as hard and unforgiving as that fire hydrant Addie and I had run into. And I had to live the whole rest of my life without her. I really did.

Jenna Evans Welch, Love & Gelato

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'So what's it like?' 'What?' 'Losing your mom.' I stopped walking. Not only was this the first time anyone had ever asked me that, but he was looking at me like he actually wanted to know. For a second I thought about telling him that it was like being an island--that I could be in a room full of people and still feel alone, an ocean of hurt trying to crash in on me from every direction. But I swallowed the words back as quickly as I could. Even when they ask, people don't want to hear your weird grief metaphors. Finally I shrugged my shoulders. 'It really sucks.' 'I bet it does. Sorry.' 'Thanks.' I smiled. 'Hey, we just did it again.' 'Sorry.' 'Thanks.'

Jenna Evans Welch, Love & Gelato

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'How are your sisters getting along?' A few seconds pass before he responds. 'The worst nights are when they cry for her and there's nothing we can do to calm them. They just have to see it through until they're so tired they can finally shut their eyes.'

Katie Kingman Down with This Ship

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Needed a change after my mom passed away. He said he couldn't handle the porch where her flowers grew, or driving by the school she taught at, or seeing the hospital every day on his way to work. Too many reminders of her everywhere.

Katie Kingman Down with This Ship

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'He sounds like such a good dad.' 'He was.' Jonah's stare stays out over the water. 'I keep wondering if it'll ever hurt less. This...this hole in our lives.' 'Oh, I imagine it'll hurt less eventually. I think there will always be a hole, though. But lace is one of the most beautiful fabrics, you know. All those holes and gaps, but it's still completely somehow--still lovely.'

Emery Lord, When We Collided

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I wonder how many people felt this way toward my family--unsure of what to say. Sometimes I think everyone should be handed a manual for this stuff when they turn fourteen. That seems like a good age. Starting high school. Starting at the business end of your childhood, when you have to start growing up. So maybe the school should distribute a book called The Field Guide for Broken People. Between Vivi and me alone, we could write a bunch of chapters. Dead Dad. No Dad. Despondent Mom. Flaky Mom. But each broken person is different, and there is no right way for everyone. Just a lot of wrong ways.

Emery Lord, When We Collided

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In the first days after my dad died, Sarah was nice to have around. She's prepared. Just, as a lifestyle choice: prepared. For any situation. She does things like a pack a whole purse full of tissues when she attends your dad's funeral. She even had a bottle of baby aspirin, like she knew my sister would cry until her head throbbed. But then I became her project. She was extra peppy--all positive thinking and up-and-at-'ems. When I couldn't decide to be happy and then do it, when my grief wasn't an easily conquerable goal...well, the yipping grated against my eardrums. Jonah, she told me. It seems like you're not even trying to be happy. Happy? I thought. I'm nowhere freaking close to happy. Happy is a distant continent. I was trashing in the storm. Sarah didn't understand anything about my life. I hated being hustled out of pain I earned.

Emery Lord, When We Collided