The Art of Losing (Essay‪)‬

1. It would have been my mother's eightieth birthday the day my daughter stuck her necklace in her shoe and turned a cartwheel in the grass. My mother had bought the Star of David necklace in Israel. It had bits of amethyst and garnet on the outer triangles, much too fancy for a ten-year-old. We combed the playground, plundered the school Lost and Found, beseeched the children, principal, staff, and teachers for help. Still, it didn't turn up.