Every June, a small independent school holds an eighth-grade graduation in its gym. Families cry, teachers hug students they've known since they were four, and the head of school thanks parents for nine years of volunteering, carpooling, fundraising, and patie
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It's the Monday after the clocks fall back. The dining room of a chef-owned restaurant is dark except for one table near the kitchen pass, where the chef, Teresa, and her business partner, Sam, have spread out three things: last winter's reservation book, a st
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On the last Monday of October, the staff of a small nonprofit community music school sit around the folding table in the room where the beginner piano class meets on Thursdays. There are five of them: the executive director, the program manager, the developmen
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A woman walks into a funeral home on a Tuesday afternoon. Nobody she loves has died. She's sixty-eight, she buried her husband from this same building nine years ago, and she wants to write down what she'd like for herself so her children won't have to guess.
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A retired schoolteacher gives to her town's community foundation every December. It isn't a large gift. She's done it for eleven years. Each January, she receives the same printed receipt letter, signed by a name she doesn't recognize, thanking her for her "ge
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