The Shared Room

Several months after one of four children dies, a Hmong family in St. Paul lives with a quiet, pervasive sadness. Their daughter’s bedroom has been left as it was on the day she drowned. Her two brothers share another room, while their baby sister sleeps with their parents. When the mother asks the older brother whether he would like his sister’s room, he says yes, but the details of using her bed and drawers overwhelm him. His held-back tears finally come as the family confronts what changing the room means.