Lisa Gordillo

If It's Five Million

Michigan, 2019 I’m standing in my little blue kitchen cooking bacon, thinking of Stasia. Every time with bacon, Stasia comes to mind, because she first taught me. In Virginia, when we were teenagers. Her momma Ruth sitting to the side, eyes a little glazed but laughing deep. Ruth, she could laugh, and so much made her, even with all the sadness she carried. Stasia’s standing over the pan, gently flipping each piece, one by one. You know how a moment can happen and you don’t know then that you’ll come back to it, for the rest of your life? This – it’s that.