Foil

“I was able to ache for her, for all that had been so impossible for her to bear, for the bad cards she had been dealt. Yet I could forgive her only about half of the time. I was struggling to learn the little things she forgot to teach me—that I was beautiful, and of value, regardless of how well or poorly I was doing in the world—and was mad that she had given me a bad owner’s manual. I saw her as foil, and believed that I had grown to be the woman I was simply because of how hard I had to work to defend myself against turning out like her.” —Anne Lammot, Grace (Eventually)