Until It Was Gone - David B. Seaburn

When, at the end of their fortieth anniversary dinner, Laney announces she's leaving Franklin, he's stunned and asks if she ever loved him, to which she answers, "Yes, until it was gone."

Laney leaves for the Oklahoma panhandle in search of Roz, their estranged daughter, who left home at sixteen, and the nineteen-year-old granddaughter, Maggie, Laney has never met.

Shortly after she leaves, Franklin contracts COVID which morphs into long COVID. His episodes of fogginess and disorientation awaken memories of abuse at the hands of his father. His sister comes to take care of him, but she needs to return home soon for the sentencing of a mass murderer who killed her husband.

If that weren't enough, Maggie becomes pregnant and, due to medical complications, needs an abortion, but she lives in a state where it's outlawed. What will she do? Where will she go? Will the family find the resilience to come together for everyone's sake?

Until It Was Gone tells of a family trying to make life work while being pummeled by the exigencies of contemporary society. It celebrates the thin strands of hope that hold us together and move us forward.