Thanksgiving 2020, “COVID style,” has just wrapped up, and the Christmas season is now upon us. As I take down the Thanksgiving decorations in my house and begin to put up the Christmas decorations, I find myself getting sentimental as I take a virtual walk down memory lane.

The memories aren’t all warm and fuzzy as I touch specific decorations, including a Christmas stocking I crocheted for my son or the green clay Christmas tree dish I made in ceramics class while I was in a federal prison. Seeing these ornaments again brings back so many of the painful memories of eight Thanksgivings and eight Christmases spent in prison, away from my only child — my beloved son, Adam.