What started out as a simple family dinner took an expected turn. “Let’s have everyone over for dinner before the weather gets bad” he said. Translation: pick up groceries, clean the house top to bottom, take dogs to the groomers, and about a million other details. Which was why I missed the kids going off to have private conversations with Richard and coming back wearing big smiles and necklaces with their birthstones on them. When the timer went off signaling that dinner was ready, no one made a move to eat. I was told to sit down and listen because Richard had a question he needed to ask me.