“My 76-Year-Old Grandpa Took Me Into the Woods Every Day and Made Me Undress Until I Was Half-Naked. But One Day, My Mother Secretly Followed Us and Heard Strange Screams Coming From Deep Inside the Forest. When She Got Closer and Saw What We Were Actually Doing, Her Heart Couldn’t Take It. She Fell to Her Knees and Burst Into Tears…”

Sometimes the past cannot be changed.

Sometimes apologies cannot return the years we have lost.

But if we are willing to speak honestly, forgive where we can, and take the first step toward one another, even the longest separation does not have to be the end of the story.

Twenty-five years had passed before my mother and Mary embraced again.

I hope they have many more years together.

And every time I see them sitting side by side, laughing beneath the afternoon sun, I remember that a path back to someone we love may be difficult to build.

But it is never too late to begin.