This short story is a tremendous example for a good story without much action. There definitely is a conflict (and a good one), but there is almost no action, no dialog, almost only internal thoughts of a mother.
The narrator receives a message from her son, who has emigrated to Mars. At some point she calculates that even if he visits earth as often and as long as he can, she would have six more months (in summary) with him, tops.
"Six months at most, and then never again."
Then she starts thinking about her own mom and how much time was left with her, before her Mum died. She is fairly sure it was not more than six months after she moved out, either.
"It's just, I didn't know how little overlap there'd be, a handful of years that were barely a fraction of our lives when all's added up. An island of a decade or so, when I was working around the clock, barely resting my head on a pillow, with baby vomit and food crusted on the edges of my sleeves, when it was me and him, and every once in a while, my mother.
That was the time."
The thought is not new, and maybe you do not need Mars to show the conflict of parents. Or kids. But Mars serves well because it's so brutally far away. It illustrates the problem and all the things that won't work easily (like a phone call without delays).
Thomas Ha got me here. I immediately started to think about the time I spent with my mother. Or father. Or grandparents.
And this, while I am in the middle of the aforementioned ten years span.
As the author himself very likely is himself, as is stated in his vita.
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