IN THE LATE SUMMER OF 2007, I am in my neighborhood coffee shop in Wilmington, n.c.,
staring at my thesis, unaware that in a few moments the phone will ring and change my life
completely. I am 27 years old, single and just out of graduate school. I completed my mfa
with a book that was no more than a collection of small memories about my mother. the
idea of having her stand alone was appealing, but my father’s absence is felt. the bits of
him that make it in—his voice, his hands— even those pull at the shape of the story. Just
as his character cannot be ignored in life, so too will it not stick to my pages. I have
decided to revise and allow him more fully into the book. »
Life After Life
A WRITER MUST DECIDE WHAT FAMILY MEANS WHEN HER
ABSENTEE FATHER ASKS FOR HELP
by hannah dela cruz abrams
YOUR FAMILY
The author and her father in Wrightsville Beach, N.C., in 1985.
