Fifteen minutes behind schedule, Dana and I raced off in the van to pick up Cordelia and Lily from school. Dana looked at her watch again: “Oh God, Cordelia’ll be in a foul mood, I know. She hates for me to be late.” Children’s Broadway Theatre was having its first meeting of the season and the director was introducing the year’s new play.

Dana was the younger of the two daughters of the Turner family from Roadville. She had followed her older sister Catherine to the Washington, DC area where they both had lived since they finished college. Dana had high aspirations and energy to match. We were rushing to collect her sixth-grade daughter Cordelia from school.