My Daughter Gave Me Earbuds for My Birthday—A Veteran at Work Took One Look and Went Pale

That was Curtis’s way.

“You doing okay?” he finally asked.

“Getting there.”

He nodded. “What you did took guts.”

“Didn’t feel like guts. Felt like losing.”

That evening, I stood in the living room looking at the mantle. There was a photo I’d kept for years—Nicole at seven, gap-toothed smile, sitting on my shoulders at Freedom Park. Susan had taken it one continue reading …