For years, I was the mother who always said yes. I put everyone else first, even when I was exhausted and had nothing left to give. But after a painful family vacation in Brittany, my daughter finally realized what she had been doing to me. And at 62, I discovered something I should have learned decades earlier: loving your family should never mean losing yourself.

“Mom, can I tell you something?”

“Of course.”

“When Dad died, I was so afraid of losing you, too. You were always so strong. You never seemed to need anything. I think I started believing that you would always be there, no matter what.”

I looked at her carefully.

“I was afraid, too,” I admitted. “But I thought I had to be strong for everyone. I thought that if I showed how tired or lonely I felt, I would make things harder for you.”

Claire shook her head.

“You never would have made things harder for me by telling me the truth.”

“Perhaps not. But I had to learn that for myself.”

She leaned her head against my shoulder.

“I wish I had noticed sooner.”

“Perhaps,” I said. “But you are noticing now.”

We sat quietly for a while.

Then Claire asked, “What do you want your life to look like now, Mom?”