My due date was supposed to be late last week, which means I would have probably been in labor right about now. I am always later than my due date. 

But I am not in labor. I won’t be. I’m only laboring through the days with a heaviness that won’t lessen with a birth. It is the heaviness of early September. I’ve known it for 15 years and, it seems, I’ll know it for a lifetime.