Throwing my mother's artwork in the dumpster

Two years after my mother died, I made the heartbreaking (and liberating) decision to throw a small box of her artwork in the dumpster. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have. I had to. I miss every piece of it.

My mother was a painter, mostly - and a poet - but this box contained four works in fabric that I especially loved. After they were gone I found that, eve…