Not because I was his wife.
He chose me because I knew what it meant to sit beside someone who was hurting and simply stay.
That was all.
Sometimes staying is enough.
Sometimes holding someone’s hand is enough.
Sometimes the greatest thing you can give another human being is the certainty that, for one moment, they do not have to face the world alone.
Julian taught me that.
My mother taught me that.
And Lily, without ever knowing me, taught me that too.
I still miss my mother.
I still miss Julian.
There are days when grief returns without warning.
But it no longer feels like a stone sitting on my chest.
It feels like a river.
It moves through me.
And when it reaches the world, I let it carry something with it.
A kindness.
A dress.
A meal.
A hand held.
A child made to feel beautiful.
A dying person made to feel remembered.
