Hillbilly Elegy

brother and half sister whom I never saw
because my biological father had given
me up for adoption. I had many
stepbrothers and stepsisters by one
measure, but only two if you limited the
tally to the offspring of Mom’s husband
of the moment. Then there was my
biological dad’s wife, and she had at
least one kid, so maybe I should count
him, too. Sometimes I’d wax
philosophical about the meaning of the
word “sibling”: Are the children of your
mom’s previous husbands still related to
you? If so, what about the future children
of your mom’s previous husbands? By
some metrics, I probably had about a
dozen stepsiblings.