I beat cancer and saved a place beside the hospital bell for my family. None of them came. Then my doctor handed me a letter that made me wish their absence was all I had to cry about.
In our family, my older sister Paige was the academic star, and my younger brother Dean was the athlete Mom never stopped bragging about.
And me?
I was Nora. I preferred building things to collecting trophies.
But when I won a woodworking competition at sixteen, I finally had a trophy of my own.
I preferred building things.
My mom, Linda, barely glanced at it. “That’s nice, sweetheart. But have you considered a real career?”
Dad looked up from his newspaper.
“Linda, she built that cabinet herself.”
“Richard, I’m thinking about her future.”
“So am I.”
Have you considered a real career?
Dad was a carpenter. I practically grew up in his workshop.
