For months after it happened, through sweaty South Carolina days and cooler starlit nights, even when the air eventually grew so chilly that she could see her breath, Katie Lesslie sat curled up in the cushioned porch swing of her white house in the woods, staring past her backyard and into the distance.
Images flashed through her head: her two children, Adah, 9, and Noah, 5, playing over there to her left, climbing on rocks and running wild on ground made soft by fallen pine needles.
Her father-in-law, clad in his doctor’s scrubs, playing “Highland Cathedral” on his bagpipes outside his house.
Her mother-in-law, whose motto was “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing,” in her kitchen cooking family favorites like B’s favorite mud pie.
As Katie sat and thought, her husband, Jeff, brought her food. And fuzzy blankets. And boxes of tissues, to wipe away their never-ending tears as they searched for an answer to a question that had none.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The post A Stranger Shattered Their Lives. At First, They Didn’t Know Why. appeared first on New York Times.
