Returning home for her father’s final months had not been an easy choice. Claire left behind a thriving career in Chicago, a new apartment, and the steady hum of city life. Her friends called her brave; her boyfriend called her selfless, though the relationship dissolved before winter set in. Yet her father’s illness, cruel and lingering, demanded more than the occasional phone call or holiday visit. Unlike her brothers, who always had an excuse or business trip, Claire was there for the daily realities—hospital visits, sorting pills, nights spent in an armchair listening to him breathe.
She learned how to coax a smile out of him when the pain was bad, how to talk him through the confusion when he woke up thinking she was her mother. Those fourteen months were exhausting and isolating, but she’d made peace with her sacrifices. What stung now was not the barn itself, but the knowledge that her brothers and the rest of the family still saw her as the least important Whitmore.