I don't know if this counts as a confession, really, but it's been buzzing around in my head for weeks now, and I feel like I might just explode if I don't get it out somewhere. I think maybe I'm just… angry. I'm not even sure who I'm angry at, which is probably the worst part. My mother, she’s 55 now, divorced, and her kids—my older brothers and me—we're all grown and gone. We only come home for holidays, which I know is normal. It's how things are supposed to be. But the weekends... she just seems to shrink into herself on the weekends. I called her Saturday, just a quick check-in, and she was watching some old movie, said she’d just finished a jigsaw puzzle. A jigsaw puzzle. I mean, good for her, I guess, but it just made my stomach clench up. This is a woman who raised three kids, worked full-time, always running us to soccer or piano or whatever. Her house was always full, always noisy. And now it’s just… quiet. I know it's not her fault. It's not our fault either, I don't think. We all moved away for work, for life, because there’s just not much here in this town. Everyone knows everyone’s business, and if you don’t have family here, you’re kind of an outsider, even if you’ve lived here your whole life. There aren't many options for her to just *do* things. The ladies at the church group are nice, I suppose, but that's not exactly a bustling social life. And she just seems so… reluctant to try anything new. Every time I suggest something, she just says, "Oh, I wouldn't want to bother anyone," or "I'm just fine here." But I don't think she is. I don't think she's fine at all. And that's where the anger comes in, I think. Because I want to shake her. I want to tell her to just GO. Go do something, anything, even if it’s just driving to the next town over for a coffee. But I can't. It feels like it’s not my place, and then I feel guilty for even thinking it. Like I'm being ungrateful for all the quiet weekends she spent making sure we had everything we needed. But I just look at her, and I see this kind of… quiet despair, and it makes me so incredibly mad. Mad at the situation, mad at this town, mad at her for not fighting it, mad at myself for not being there more often. I just don't know what to do. I don't know if this ever gets better.