What Kind of Car Do You Drive?

Andi Mandel drove to California on Route 66 in a Buick, with a dream and a plan. Teach art. Marry Mr. Perfect. Raise the perfect family. What she got instead was better.

Three kids who taught her that detours aren't mistakes, they're the actual road. Jeremy, whose first word was "car" and who asked every stranger the same question: "What kind of car do you drive?" It wasn't small talk. It was Jeremy's way of asking who you are, how you move through the world, what matters to you. From the To...