My daughter Emma brought a life-size cardboard cutout of a boy to her graduation. Her classmates laughed, and the principal threatened to stop her from receiving her diploma. But when she handed him a folded letter, his expression changed completely.
“Emma, please tell me you’re not taking that thing to graduation,” I said as she carefully adjusted the blue graduation cap on the cardboard boy.
“I need to do this myself, Mom,” she replied.
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I wanted to stop her. I knew how cruel teenagers could be, but I also knew why she had made the cutout.
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Two years earlier, Emma’s twin brother, Felix, had died from a heart condition at just sixteen. They had always dreamed of graduating together, competing over who would cross the stage first.
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After Felix died, Emma struggled with her grief. She kept his belongings and rarely spoke about her future. But as graduation approached, she tried to find a way to honor him.
