But these children won’t.
They will remember birthdays without their parents.
They will remember holidays.
They will remember photographs.
They will remember voices.
They will have questions.
They will grow older and understand more about what happened.
And they will have to find a way to live with something they were never responsible for.
So if you remember anything from this story, please remember them.
Not the arguments.
Not the comments.
Not the accusations.
Not the people fighting online over who they believe.
Remember the children.
Because August 17th will eventually become a date that most people scroll past.
For these five children, it will always be the day their lives changed forever.
And August 18th will always be the day some of them learned the terrible meaning of the words:
“Your daddy isn’t coming home.”
They didn’t get to choose any of this.
They don’t deserve the judgment.
They don’t deserve the arguments.
They don’t deserve to carry the hatred of strangers.
They deserve time.
They deserve safety.
They deserve love.
And most of all, they deserve the chance to grow up without believing that the worst moments of their parents’ lives have to become the definition of their own.
