platform.
Maybe it was loyalty.
Maybe it was foolishness.
Or maybe you cannot truly close a door when nobody ever allowed you to say goodbye.
Still, I built a life.
I worked as a bookkeeper for more than thirty years.
Numbers became comforting because they followed rules.
They added up properly.
Life rarely did.
I bought a small house on my own.
Paid the mortgage myself.
Kept a garden.
Loved my nieces, nephews, and later their children.
My life was quiet.
Not unhappy.
But there was always an empty chair
