“Mothering, she learned the hard way, was about loss as well as love.”

“The loss of a loved one is like the loss of a part of oneself; an arm or a leg. At first, the pain is so physical that it is hard to ignore. The trauma is so intense that the mind finds it hard to cope with the loss. With time the pain eases, the body recovers and the brain figures out new ways to go on.”

“Some lessons you learned by the book. Others you learned from cold hard experience. The latter may not be the best way to learn, but it damn well stuck.”

“I wondered if Kate would harden as my mother had when she was young and her own mother died. Some people exist quite well in injury. It's like having gills to breathe underwater. Some people are clever about not drawing others into their affliction. You could hardly tell by looking at my mother that she was a stranger to providence.”

“Well o' course she's feelin' dandy! She's the mother o' God for the love o' Pete!”

“Because I feel no anger toward my mother. Only loss, and loss is a feeling you can’t fight your way out of as easily.”