Sarah’s parents got divorced when she was little. She and her siblings stayed with their mom, even though Sarah preferred her father’s company. She only saw her father for dinner once a week and stayed with him every other weekend. When she got to talk to him on the phone, her mother often stood nearby and listened.
So when email entered her life, Sarah finally had a mode of communication with her father that felt private. This is the story of how email affected their relationship, the kinds of communication it enabled, and the kinds of communication it shut down.