My father and I have not spoken in 4 years. Last week he emailed me. The subject line was "the plant."

My father is a 67-year-old retired engineer who communicates primarily through practical actions rather than words. When I graduated university he sent me a toolbox. When I got my first apartment he sent me a list of things to check before signing a lease. When the relationship ended and he somehow knew without being told, he sent me a book about cooking for one, with a bookmark on the soup chapter. We stopped speaking in 2020. Not dramatically. Not one argument. Just a gradual reduction in calls until there were no calls, and then a long silence that neither of us filled, and then enough time passed that filling it required acknowledging it, and neither of us has been willing to do that. Last Tuesday an email arrived. The subject line was: "the plant." My father is not a man who emails. My father is barely a man who calls. My father writing an email with a subject line is, in the language he speaks, an event of some significance. I have not opened it yet. I am not ready and also I cannot stop thinking about it. $3. I will open it and tell you what it says. 🙏