I never stopped missing my family.
But one afternoon, Sophie visited the center with Gianna.
She climbed into the chair beside me and handed me a book.
I began volunteering.
“Can you read this?”
For a moment, I remembered Lucy asking the same question.
This time, the memory made me smile.
“Of course, sweetheart.”
I opened the book.
As Sophie leaned against my arm, I finally understood something.
“Can you read this?”
My daughter and granddaughter were gone, but the love they’d given the world hadn’t disappeared.
It lives on in the people they helped.
For years, I’d been afraid to retire because I thought work was all I had left.
Now, I knew better.
I still had something to give.
And thanks to Emily, Lucy, Gianna, and one little girl named Sophie, I finally had a reason to look forward to tomorrow.
