Labour Day weekend had always meant one thing in my family: our annual birthday celebration for all the Virgos. In September 2022, we gathered at my mom’s house to celebrate my birthday, my sons’ birthdays, and several other family birthdays. We swam, laughed, celebrated, and took countless pictures.

I had no idea it would be the last birthday I would ever celebrate with my sons.

One photograph from that day has become especially precious—a picture of me with all three of my children. It isn’t a photo where I think I look particularly good, but today, I don’t notice any of that. I only see my kids standing beside me. And we look happy.

In Episode 105 of After the Quiet, I reflect on family estrangement, parental alienation, the “lasts” we don’t recognize while we’re living them, and how photographs can  ...