Our family story in California is not neat. There were moves, job changes, one divorce nobody talks about much, years where money was bad, and relatives sleeping on couches longer than anyone planned.
But there was also a lot of love. My aunt taking us in for a summer. My grandmother sending birthday cards with five dollars inside. My dad trying again after he lost work. My mother acting stronger than she probably felt.
California held all of that. The good, the hard, the embarrassing, the things we laugh about now and the things we still don’t.
I am placing this hex because I don’t want only perfect stories to be remembered. Our family was real. This state held us anyway.