Splitting the Difference

At 18, Tr Miller-Rodrguez gave her newborn daughter up for adoption. At 19, her only sibling was killed in a car crash. At 34, she lost her husband to a sudden heart attack. Then, at 36, her now-teenaged daughter found her on Facebookand began to reshape the course of Tr's life. With sharp, immediate prose, Tr unpacks the experience of being young and widowed in New York City: the ';dumb sh*% people say'; the ';brave face' she wears to work and social events; the solace she doesn't find in one-night stands; and how her perspective only begins to shift when she spontaneously brings Alberto's ashes on a trip and sets into motion the ritual of spreading him in bodies of water around the world. Once she's begun, Tr discovers that traveling to her bucket list destinationsplaces like Savannah, Brazil, and Cubais a viable strategy for facing her roughest days, and her loss of her husband becomes a lens through which she begins to view her past and embrace her future. By the end of her journey, Tr has quit her corporate job, explored Alberto's homeland of Cuba, and joyfully reunited with her biological daughter in North Carolina. Equal parts inspiring, irreverent, and heart-rending, Splitting the Difference is written with the ';raw-thenticity' of a woman transformed by heartbreak and inspired by love's legacy.