I remember a frightened young man keeping a promise to his best friend, and a grieving mother learning that love does not always arrive in the form we expect.
My son died at eighteen.
But the friendship he left behind never ended.
And whenever I see Theo wearing Jack’s watch, I am reminded that some promises survive even the people who made them.
That is the gift my son left us.
Not an explanation for why he had to die.
Not a way to make grief disappear.
Just a reminder that even in the hardest moments of our lives, we can choose to be kind.
And sometimes, the person who teaches us that lesson is the very person we almost turned away.
