VOICES FROM OVER THE HILL AND THROUGH VERMONT

Lily Blanc sat at a small round table at a favorite coffee shop, waiting for her “friend, Alyssa. Like so many others in the popular, cozy place, she whiled away the time scrolling through her cell phone apps. As she focused on an appealing New York Times puzzle, two women walked by juggling their designer coffees, sweet treats and over-sized personal bags toward the table behind her. The women seemed to be friends who hadn’t seen each other in a few weeks and were now catchi

There’s a time when I’ve got to relinquish any idea that I’m going to have another baby, and I point out to myself that I really don’t care, because the only reason I want this baby rather than a cat or a goldfish is so Karl will never go away and leave me, and I’ve become confident after a decade that Karl will stay even without a tangle of family to trip him on the way out the door. And because I’m a realist, I become enchanted with the benefits of life without more offspri