I was in the NPR studios in Washington, DC, winding down a half-hour interview for a segment that would run on Morning Edition. Since the topic was my new book, You Were Always Mom's Favorite!: Sisters in Conversation Throughout Their Lives, the interviewer, Susan Stamberg, called my two sisters, to...

Cecile stood up, straightened her back, and stretched her arms out wide, dramatizing how her older sister had always protected her. Then she said: "Sometimes when we talk on the phone, we run out of things to say, but we don't hang up. We put the phones down but keep...