Kimberly Reid

And my mom started crying because her

her children were reuniting.

And also because for years she had been running interference between the two of us and using every excuse in the book to explain why I wasn't getting back to him or why packages to me were being returned because they had the wrong name on them.

And her job running interference was over.

So Mark was in shock.

We were all in shock.

I was in shock because I was thinking about the fact that nobody in my hometown knew

And I'm wondering if I can go back for the funeral, if I should go back, if my mom and my brothers really want me to, really deep down.

And I'm thinking that I never even thought I was gonna go back to my hometown, and now I'm being pulled back right into it.

As contradictory as it may seem,

as soon as there was a reason to go back, I had this really deep, strong yearning to go back.

I mean, I had gone to school in New York and San Francisco and traveled all over the world and this place that I thought of as home, that I think I really repressed, knowing that I couldn't go back there, right?

I don't need to go back there.

But as soon as there was a reason for me to go back there, a very strong reason, I really, really wanted to go.

I wanted to see

the house, the only house I had ever known growing up.

I wanted to go back to my hometown and these people that, you know, comprise this community that I thought of as home, right?

And my mom reassured me that she wanted me to be there, that she in fact needed me there for support, my brothers too.

And my mom had a plan to get us there.

Our family had been separated for a long time, so she had the idea for all of us to rent a car and drive the 20 hours from Denver back to Montana.