“The word amazing conveys nothing. I can’t picture your experience from that sparse description.” She felt unsettled and raw. She wished for a moment that Liza was here. Liza would understand.

Reading those letters couldn’t have been easy, but her daughter had been compassionate and sensitive. She’d checked how her mother was feeling, without in any way smothering her or forcing her to reveal the emotions that were swirling inside her. Liza had asked few questions, even though she must have had hundreds.

Kathleen’s eyes stung. Her biggest regret wasn’t the years she hadn’t been close to Ruth, but the years she’d wasted when she could have been closer to Liza. That bothered her more than the lost relationship with Ruth. She’d held herself back from the people who were most important to her.

She tried to focus as Martha slid into the car next to her. “You enjoyed yourselves?”

“It’s magnificent. There are multiple layers of rock, all different colors. Blues, and purples—wait—” Martha pulled out her phone and showed Kathleen the photographs. “This will give you a better idea than my totally inadequate words. Do you see the petrified wood?”

Kathleen was touched by Martha’s insistence on including her in the parts of the trip that were beyond her capabilities.

“It’s the result of extensive erosion.” Josh leaned forward from the passenger seat, every bit as enthusiastic as Martha. “You’re looking at layers of exposed sandstone and bentonite clay. The mineral deposits are a few hundred million years old. It was formed in the late Triassic period.”

“Your brother would accuse you of being a nerd at this point,” Martha said and Josh gave her a smile.

“He would. And I’d point out that it wasn’t politically correct to call someone a nerd.”

“At which point he would roll his eyes and open another beer.”

From Josh’s laughter Kathleen thought it safe to assume that Martha’s guess had been correct. They’d obviously been talking about his brother on their walk.

The dead never left, she knew that. They walked alongside you.

What would Brian have said, if he could be with her now?

You read the letters? Good. It will make your mind feel tidier to have that chapter complete.

Kathleen smiled. She’d never been the tidiest of people.