“On My 62nd Birthday, A Stranger Bought Me Dessert With A Candle. I Woke Up Alone To A Photograph Of Myself Asleep, And A Note: ‘Forgive Me For What I Did Afterward.’ Then I Found My Safe Empty, And A Second Photograph On My Table: The Stranger Standing Beside My Own Son. On The Back: ‘Your Son Arranged All Of This.’”

waiter, and ordered a dessert with a candle. “You shouldn’t end your birthday alone.”

We walked around the city a long time afterward. Eventually he offered to accompany me to the hotel where I’d decided to spend the night rather than go home so late. What happened next, I’d had no intention of telling anyone. For the first time in years, I let myself continue reading …