Five years have passed.
Theo is twenty-three now.
Last spring, Daniel and I drove up to Ann Arbor for his college graduation from the University of Michigan. He studied nursing. He wants to work in pediatric oncology.
“Somebody has to sit next to the bed,” he told me once. “Might as well be somebody who knows how.”
We sat in the stadium next to his mom. She held my hand when they called his name.
When the ceremony was over, Theo came running across the grass toward us in his cap and gown. He threw his arms around both of us at once.
Then he leaned down and whispered in my ear.
“I almost wore red today.”
Daniel heard him.
“Don’t even think about it,” Daniel said.
Theo laughed so hard his cap fell off.
That night, at a little Italian restaurant in Ann Arbor, we gave him his graduation present.
It was a plain black wristwatch. A Timex. Thirty-five dollars.
Jack wore it almost every day of high school. Until his wrists got too thin for the band, and it kept sliding off in the hospital.
Theo stared at it in the little box.
“Mrs. Harris,” he said. “I can’t take this.”
I reached over and closed his fingers around it.
“Yes, you can, honey. Jack would want you to have it. He’d say you’re terrible at being on time.”
Theo laughed.
Then he cried.
So did I. So did Daniel.
Those moments happen less often now. The crying ones.
But grief doesn’t disappear. It just changes shape.
Some days, Jack feels impossibly far away.
And then I hear somebody say, “A very strong bird,” or I see somebody put ketchup on their eggs, and suddenly it feels like he’s standing right next to me.
Sophia Rivers is an experienced News Content Editor with a sharp eye for detail and a passion for delivering accurate and engaging news stories. At TheArchivists, she specializes in curating, editing, and presenting news content that informs and resonates with a global audience.
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