At twenty-four, I lost more than a job — I lost stability, dignity, and the belief that I could fix everything alone. Within a month, I was sleeping in my car with my two small children, telling them we were “camping” while I tried to keep our world from falling apart.

Eventually, desperation outweighed pride, and I drove to my mother’s house.

When she opened the door, she looked smaller than I remembered. I told her everything — the layoff, the eviction, the gas station bathrooms, the nights parked under streetlights.

“I have nowhere else to go,” I said.

She hesitated.

“My boyfriend… he wouldn’t allow it,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

I left, furious and heartbroken, ignoring her calls and messages in the days that followed.

Five weeks later, she was gone — a heart condition, sudden but not unexpected.

At her funeral, her boyfriend handed me a faded fabric bag with my name stitched on it. Inside were crocheted hats, blankets, and sweaters labeled with my children’s names.

There were letters too.

She wrote about her failing heart, how doctors had given her weeks. She hadn’t told me because she didn’t want my last memories of her to be hospital rooms.

“I wanted you to remember my laughter,” she wrote.

Now, when I wrap my children in the blankets she made, I tell them about their grandmother.

And every night, I whisper, “I’m sorry, Mom. I understand now.”