Acknowledgments

Heartfelt thanks to our agent, Kate McKean, for her belief in this book, her support, and her encouragement. And much gratitude to Nancy Miller and her incredible staff at Bloomsbury for thoughtful editing, kind guidance, and for making this such a happy and memorable experience.

From Hallie

Many thanks to Jack Sjogren—your encouragement and hugs at the end of so many long workdays kept me going. To Alice Medland, for being my best friend and for bringing me joy and flowers on a regular basis. To Ariana Lenarsky, for pulling me away from the desk to hike each Sunday, always returning me more inspired and eager to work. To Nick and Ben for many long, life-sustaining phone calls and for always making me laugh. To my dad, Chris Bateman, for his humor, generosity, and for patiently waiting his turn. (Don’t worry, Dad, I’ve got some ideas for how to immortalize your wisdom.)

And to my mom, for being utterly irreplaceable but willing to try to replace herself anyway.

From Suzy

I’m grateful to the many elders I’ve interviewed over the past decade for helping me understand the depth and duration of love and loss. To Ben, Hallie, and Nick, for three decades of action-packed training on being a mom. To my sister, Ann Gosman, for her friendship and insights during and after our mother’s death. To Chris Bateman, the funniest writer I know, for reading draft after draft and still laughing out loud, and for joining me thirty years ago on this grand experiment called parenthood.

And to Hallie, again, for our long talks that are the heart of this book, and for illustrations that reach so far beyond words.