Our Triplet Sister Passed Away When We Were Only Eleven—On Our 21st Birthday, Mom Handed Us a Box that She Had Left Behind

had once been three little girls instead of two.

But Leila and I never felt like twins.

We felt like fragments of something that had been broken apart.

Nora had been older by seven minutes, a fact she treated as if it gave her permanent authority over our lives.

“I’m the oldest,” she would announce proudly. “That means I make the decisions.”

Leila would continue reading …