you to hear, Mom.
You’re going to be alone. I’ve thought about this more than anything else, more than my own dying. My whole life it’s been you and me, and Dad’s gone, and I’m your only one, and when I go, you’ll have nobody. And I can’t stand it. I can face leaving. I can’t face leaving you with no one.
So I did something. I hope you’ll forgive me for arranging your life without asking.
Lily’s mother is named Diane, and she’s about to be exactly where you’re about to be, except in reverse — she’s about to have her only child saved by a boy she never met, and she’s going to spend the rest of her life grateful to a stranger and wishing she could thank his mother. And you’re about to lose your only child, and spend the rest of your life with a hole where
