RDAU_2026-ISSUE0809_DIGITAL MAGAZINE

96 BY Brett W. Summers from the boston globe Finding Refuge in Each Other A family takes in a student during a school shooting W e were standing in our kitchen in Providence, Rhode Island, last December when Dave got the text alert from Brown University. I had just begun setting out ingredients for dinner. “Oh no,” he said, his shoulders pulled down by the horror of it. “There’s a live shooter at Brown.” Dave, my spouse, teaches in the medical school. I followed him into the living room as he looked at his phone for information. “They’re al- ready reporting two dead,” he said. “Oh God.” We were safe in our house but uneasy, imagining the terror in that building just 2 miles away. Then he said, “Wait, did you put out the tofu?” I had, yes, both blocks. But the dog had eaten half of it—gone in an instant of our inattention. Now what? That was our dinner. “I’ll dash out and get more,” I offered, trying to salvage some piece of the evening. Safety demanded that I not drive toward Brown, so I went the other way to a corner grocery store, where I overheard the owner say they had a student hanging out in their restaurant across the street. “A Brown student?” I asked, tofu in hand. “Yes, yes,” he said. “She can’t get back to the university. But it’s too cold outside, so she’s at the restaurant staying warm now.” I didn’t have my wits about me to head right across the street, but once I got home, Dave encouraged me to go back to extend an offer of refuge. readersdigest.com.au   |  august/september 2026    97 illustrations by Clare Mallison LIFE WELL LIVED