RIVER

"Dad, can I get back to you on that?" I asked, my voice cracking and strained.

"Yeah, of course, I'd like you to ask her first and let me know," he replied, getting the situation. "I'd not want to impose, but I would have loved to be in the same house as you for Thanksgiving," he added.

I knew what Thanksgiving meant to him and how he honoured the tradition in the house. "It was your mother's favourite holiday," he would say every year, and every year for Thanksgiving, we always went ...