She Went Straight for My Cookies by Jeanne Bonner

For weeks, I debated which Christmas event to attend with my sister. I finally chose a choir concert in my town. Before the performance, my sister entered my house without knocking and headed straight for the tin of homemade cookies she knew I kept in the dining room. She crammed one in her mouth before saying, “Hello.” I thought I needed the concert’s good cheer after the deaths, three weeks apart, of our 54-year-old sister and 85-year-old mother. What I really needed was someone so close to me that my house is her house, and my cookies, her cookies. — Jeanne Bonner


published in the New YorkTimes Tiny Love Stories column on
Jan 23, 2024