The Postscript: Forty Friends

The truth is, I don’t actually have 40 friends in my immediate community.

I only recently moved to town when I married Peter. So, I just went around town and invited every person I recognized and, somehow, ended up inviting forty people to my patio this past Monday evening to celebrate the release of my book.

I invited all the neighbors, and a guy I met on the trail, some writers, and a librarian, and a woman I occasionally see walking her dog—sometimes with her friend, Georgina. The dog-walking woman was recently divorced so I told her, “Invite your friend Georgina!” And she did.

My husband,...