My son-in-law texted: ‘Mom, you shouldn’t come to the BBQ, I don’t want the atmosphere to be ruined.’ I replied: ‘I understand.’ The next morning, when my son-in-law and his wife walked into the office for a ‘promotion meeting,’ both of them were stunned when they saw that I was already sitting there.
The message appeared in our family group chat at 7:43 p.m. on a Saturday evening while I was reviewing quarterly reports for my marketing consultancy at my townhome just outside Denver. The notification chimed cheerfully on my phone, completely at odds with the blow that awaited me when I opened it. “Hey everyone, just…