My father died in March and my uncle died in April. Both deaths were sudden, but not entirely surprising. My father and uncle lived, respectively, on the top two floors of a three-family house in an increasingly deteriorating part of Fall River, Massachusetts. My dad never remarried,

Growing up in Southeastern Massachusetts on the border of Rhode Island meant that our kitchen cabinets were usually stocked with coffee syrup. This staple stood among the ranks of other flavorings like Nestlé Quik, Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup, and Ovaltine, all of which turned an ordina