you alone. I refuse to. I’m leaving you a daughter with my heartbeat, and a friend who knows exactly what you’re going through, and a family to replace the one this disease is taking.
Take care of Lily for me. Let Diane take care of you. And press your ear to my daughter-in-law’s chest at my funeral and hear that I kept my promise: I found a way to stay.
I love you, Mom. Don’t be alone. That’s my real last wish. The heart was just how I made it come true.”
Chapter 4: The Two Mothers
I looked up from the letter, and Diane was still standing there, crying, and I understood that my son had reached out of his own death and handed me a family.
“He talked about you constantly,” Diane said. “On the days they were both down there. He wasn’t afraid of dying, your boy —
