Adults can usually be relied upon to photograph one another on birthdays and major holidays, especially when a member of the family is euphemistically referred to as “getting up there.” We too easily forget the people who fill in the days in between, the friends and neighbors, those who are woven so tightly into the fabric of our everyday lives that it takes a deep, irreparable tear for us to realize how bound together we really are.

I have been in your classroom and watched 24 faces brighten in your presence. Each child feels safe and loved in your room. You value their words and demonstrate to each of them that they are important. Abby needed that, as do so many of your students.

My son had had his first bath, his first cries, his first diaper change and his first feeding. All without me. I was wheeled in a chair that screamed helpless and mounted onto the powerlessness I had felt since his birth.