Every December, our family’s dining table centerpiece was a bowl of nuts, emptied long before Christmas. From almonds to walnuts, we each claimed favorites. I devoured the pecans. On her deathbed, Mom whispered to me, “I always adored pecans.”

Roberta Beach Jacobson is the author of Demitasse Fiction: One-Minute Reads for Busy People (Alien Buddha Press, 2023).