QUOTE : Yet, when Sean and Michael had departed, fishing rods in hand and a gargantuan lunch stowed in their packs, she found herself wandering listlessly about the house, picking up and then setting down a variety of small tasks, unable to settle, unable to quiet the thoughts that churned through her mind. It wasn’t being alone that bothered her. She was used to solitude. But today she felt abandoned, left behind. Her son was entering the robust world of men and she was excluded.