Thank you.

Mom,

I want to clear something up, and then ask you for something.

The reason you haven’t been able to reach us is that life has been relentless. Erin’s father passed away, and we were with him to take him off life support. Since then it’s been back and forth without a break, planning his celebration of life, traveling to Dallas, handling his remains, and keeping Erin’s business running through all of it. On top of that I lost my job and my truck was totaled. We’ve been completely underwater. It had nothing to do with anyone being told not to talk to you. No one was.

What I do need to raise: calling Erin’s office, leaving messages with her receptionist, and getting into our relationship with her staff isn’t okay. Those are coworkers who don’t know our family, and it puts personal things in front of people they don’t belong in front of. Same with calling her family and trying to reach the girls through their phones. Please stop.

The calls to everyone around us have to stop. They’re not fair to the people on the receiving end. When things settle down we’ll be back in touch, but right now we need some room.

I know you care about us. Right now the way to show it is to give us that room.