When I called her after the Sunday dinner, she pulled it out of the file.
“They did this before,” she said.
“Yes.”
“And now they’re doing the version where your savings are the family fund.”
“With the scholarship story as the rationale. If I had so much support and preferred independence, why wouldn’t I have savings I could share?”
“Because the scholarship story isn’t true,” Sophie said.
“I know.”
She said, “Have you looked for that email you mentioned? The one from your mom?”
I said I’d mentioned it? I didn’t remember mentioning it.
She said I’d mentioned it at twenty-two when I told her the story. She said I’d said my mother had sent an email telling me not to worry about the money, that it was set aside. Sophie remembered this specifically because she’d thought at the time that an email from a parent saying “the money is set aside, don’t worry” was a notable thing to have in writing.
Sophie has a better memory than I do about things I said. It is one of her more useful qualities.
I looked for the email. I found it. The rest of what followed is what I’ve already described.
But I want to give Sophie her due here, because she is not someone who showed up at the critical moment and solved everything with brilliant insight. She is someone who has been consistently present over ten years, remembered details I didn’t know I’d shared, said “look for the email” at the right moment, and arrived with wine and takeout when I needed to process something out loud.