When I went to Rachel's house to interview her for the first time, I had my notes and

questions a whole game plan like I do. Within half an hour, I gave up on all that. We

were sitting in her living room facing a big Christmas tree covered in beautiful, strange

ornaments of insects sent to her by friends and strangers. Her brother Peter had raised

butterflies. And Rachel talked for six hours. Peter had been dead less than two months.

It was her first Christmas without him being alive. Her first birthday is the sole remaining

family member. Her birthday is Christmas Eve. She just talked about her family, especially

her brother. People want so much to vilify as an action when myself included in that.

And my brother was considered a villain. They were like, oh my god, he should be busted

for manslaughter, like back when he was still alive. She's talking about some of the responses

she got on Twitter. She wrote about how her brother hadn't gotten their father to the hospital

when he was dying of COVID. And you know, that's just how it is everywhere. I get it. The

internet is what it is. But I just, he has been reduced to like this bumbling conspiracy theory

riddled anti-vaxxer who just sat by and watched his dad die and then himself died. And there

are so many contributing factors to that. The disinformation and misinformation, the whole

swirl of rage politics and social media is part of what happened in Rachel's family.

This world matters. It did real damage. But for Rachel, it was nowhere near enough to come

to a real understanding of her brother's death. The brother she knew was a survivor, like

she is. Very accustomed to scrapping, avoiding, making do. There had always been one hardship

after another to find some way to live through. How was COVID the threat he and their father

missed? How could this be what did them in? This and not everything else. From cereal and

the New York Times, this is We Were Three. I'm Nancy Uptike.

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