Anna Gruen

The Ten-Year Order

I have flashbacks of her in a black dress, as if she attended her own funeral. Perhaps it’s because she lived in constant scarcity, like she was always one step away from starvation. Short on humor, minimal in nonsense, tight-reined for schedules and speech and spending. Stoic as a Viking and rigid as a brick. Not failure but low aim was crime, and nothing I did was ever good enough for Ma.