She wants me to speak, she tells me it will do me good. She says I should speak so the children will know the things I have not told them. She says they are afraid of my secrets. I tell her that parents always have secrets from their children, don't they? How did they know I had secrets for them to be afraid of? My father grew up poor as a child but when I knew him he was hard and frightening, a small tireless man who always gave orders. I don't think I cared what he was not telling me about his life. Even if I did care, I would not have known how to ask him to tell me anything. Even if I did care, and even if I did ask, he would not have told me anything just because I cared. I never heard my mother speak about her childhood or her past .... Everyone has stories.