Sadie had started an art gallery here in Stoningham. The Frost Gallery. It had her own pieces and some sculptures and photos by other artists, too. The summer folks gobbled it up. Another way our name was growing. Frost/Alexander, now the Frost Gallery. Sadie lived with Noah most of the time, though she’d flit off to the city for a few days here, a week there. She was a little bird, my daughter, always flying somewhere, but always coming back. Sometimes Noah would go to New York with her, and Caro and I would petition to take Marcus for a night or two, letting him stay in the bathtub till his fingers were pruney, then cuddling him and reading to him, kissing his dark curls.

The garden club had proposed an area at Sheerwater to be named after me. The garden would have all the types of flowers that bloomed when the weather was still cold—the Frost Garden. It was quite an honor, and I was so proud of my girls, and myself, and our name—we Frost women were an impressive lot.

When John died, I was sadder than I expected to be. I knew it was coming; those little strokes had chipped away at him, but now that he was really gone, I kept remembering snippets of our marriage that I’d forgotten.

There was one morning during the infertility years after I’d had an awful night. Cried in the little bathroom in the Cranston house and ran the tap so John wouldn’t hear me, since there was nothing he could do. I’d been embarrassed about being so sad over something I couldn’t control. Sad again, sad every month, and I knew it had to wear at him, the feeling of helplessness, so I kept it to myself as best I could.

But the next morning, he’d made me French toast with powdered sugar, my favorite. We’d had it on our honeymoon—the first time in my life I’d had French toast, and I was so delighted with the powdered sugar and the sliced-up strawberries, John had laughed at my happiness.

And then there it was, on a regular morning when we both had to go to work. French toast and warm maple syrup, powdered sugar and sliced strawberries.

I hadn’t thought of that since it happened, but now, those kinds of memories were slipping in.