We Are Not Our Things

When my daughter died, I clung tightly to her things. After my neighbor’s foreclosure, I began to let go of them.

School photo of Ana, age 12, surrounded by her favorite stuffed animals

Four years ago, my former neighbor (I’ll call him “Dave”) lost his house. On the day it happened, a deputy showed up at the house and stood on the curb while two men moved Dave’s belongings to his front lawn. Dave had been in foreclosure for most of 2017 and 2018, but I didn’t know this. I found out when a man…