My mother passed away last year at the age of (nearly) 82 after a long illness and we had frequent discussions about what that was like realizing all the things she would never see her two grandsons (9 and 15) do in their lives.

“If my life is a book” she said, I’m the only one who gets to read the whole thing from cover to cover. For your book and your two boys’, I only get to read the first parts. Those first few chapters have brought me much joy, and I choose to dwell on that fact, rather than the chapters still to be written that I will never see. It’s not enough, but I’m grateful to have seen the stories begin and will carry them with me when I go”