If you slag off the other person, then—to the extent that your child identifies with that person as their parent—you are slagging off a part of them.

The translator matched every malapropism in the original with one from his own language.

What do you fear? Why do you shun me thus. […] I am not Pestilential, nor Leaprous.

It was the possibly-last-time visit, and we really didn't have anything to say to each other beyond the amenities of my asking if she was comfortable and her expressing concern that I looked tired.