The Letter She Couldn't Open

When Hurricane Katrina swept through Biloxi, Mississippi, in 2005, Margaret Trosclair evacuated with nothing but her purse and her dog. She spent eleven days in a shelter in Jackson, certain her home of thirty-two years was gone. When the postal service finally resumed, a letter arrived from her insurance company. She held it for three days without opening it. Her neighbor in the shelter, a retired mail carrier named Earl, asked her why.…