“I let them do it because it benefited me.”
“Yes.”
She winced.
Then she asked about Lily.
Not the accident.
Lily.
“What was she into before…?”
“Space.”
Melissa smiled faintly.
“She used to like princesses.”
“She decided princesses were inefficient because astronauts got better
equipment.”
Melissa laughed and immediately cried.
Then she asked about Noah.
“Dinosaurs. Specifically ankylosaurus.”
“I wouldn’t have known that.”
“No.”
“I should have.”
We sat there for nearly two hours.
When we left, I did not forgive her.
But for the first time since the funeral, I believed she understood that
forgiveness was not something she could schedule.
PART 10 — THE FOUNDATION
The Lily & Noah Road Safety Foundation began with two programs.
The first funded fatigue-risk education and independent safety training
for small commercial fleets that lacked large compliance departments.
The second supported families after serious roadway crashes with
practical navigation grants for transportation, childcare, and
administrative assistance.
I did not want grieving families spending their worst week figuring out
parking fees and forms alone.
We partnered with existing organizations instead of pretending we
invented road safety.
The board insisted on measurable goals.
I loved them for that.
At our first public event, a reporter asked whether the foundation was
