The Confessions

"I uninvited my brother from my wedding because my in-laws did not approve of him. I told him it was a venue capacity issue. He believed me. He gave me a card and a generous gift anyway. I have never felt smaller in my life than I did opening that envelope."

"When my parents divorced I told my father things my mother had said in confidence. I was thirteen and angry. Those words contributed to a legal battle that hurt everyone. I never told either of them what I had done."

"I have not spoken to my father in four years over something that, looking at it honestly now, was mostly my pride refusing to bend. He is seventy eight. I know I am running out of time and I still cannot make myself pick up the phone."

"I let my younger sister take the blame for something I broke when we were children. My mother was furious with her for weeks. We are in our forties now and I have never told her. She would laugh about it I think. But somehow I cannot find the words."

"My father worked two jobs my entire childhood so I could have opportunities he never had. I took those opportunities completely for granted and never once thanked him properly. He died of a heart attack at sixty two. I never got to say what I should have said every single day."

"I did not visit my father in his final weeks in hospital because I told myself I was too busy with work. The truth is I was afraid. When he died I had not seen him in two months. I will carry that forever."

"I told my children their grandfather was a good man when he was not. I wanted to protect them from a complicated truth. Now they are adults and I wonder if I should have let them form their own view. I took that from them."

"I missed my niece first birthday because I had an argument with my brother and was too stubborn to back down. She will never know I was not there. But I know. And my brother knows. We have never spoken about it."

"I told my family I could not make it home for Christmas one year because of work. I stayed home alone by choice. I just needed to not perform happiness for one year. Nobody knows that. They think I was miserable being away. I was the most peaceful I had been in years."

"I have not called my mother in three weeks. She will not call me because she does not want to be a burden. She is eighty one and lives alone. I know this about her and I still do not call. I do not know what is wrong with me."