Valentine Angels

Best Gift Ever

After years of school and uncertainty I had a great new job and a new apartment. My life seemed to be on a sure track when my parents presented me with a belated birthday gift—but a vacuum cleaner? “It’s the best on the market,” my mother said proudly. “I researched every model.” She looked at me with a hopeful expression.

A few weeks earlier I’d joined my parents for Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. That year, it also happened to fall on my birthday. And not just any birthday—my thirtieth. When my father gave a toast at dinner that night, I thought he’d acknowledge it. But