Living in isolation, often with just our families, has meant that many families have spent more time together than ever. I have experienced this on both ends—as a parent and as a daughter. This summer, we braved the flight out east to stay with my parents in Connecticut for six weeks. It was the most time I had spent with them since I lived at home right after college! It was a very special visit because, after months of waiting, they got to meet their granddaughter for the first time. Seeing them as grandparents, and becoming a parent myself, has made me appreciate all they have done (and continue to do!) for me.
Parents have a central role to play in all the stories and personal narratives in this issue— and not always a positive one. Leo Tolstoy famously opens his novel Anna Karenina with this maxim: “All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” But I disagree—I think every family, happy or unhappy, is unique in its own way. I hope this issue inspires you to reflect on your own family—or to dream up a story about a fictional one!!
