Several years before she died, my mother began sending me things — ostensibly significant objects. These included expected items like jewelry and photographs and also puzzling ones....
Show More
Several years before she died, my mother began sending me things — ostensibly significant objects. These included expected items like jewelry and photographs and also puzzling ones. For example, one afternoon I opened a package containing a carefully wrapped eight-inch-tall ceramic leprechaun that I don’t recall ever having seen. (My family has no connection to Ireland.) Not long after, she announced that she wanted to send along her collection of bird figurines, in which I had never expressed any special interest.