Dad was restless, tapping his fingers against the car window and muttering under his breath like he was willing time to speed up.
I was running on fumes but I didn’t care. I knew how much this meant to him, and there was no way I was going to let him down.
When we finally arrived, the house was quiet.
Too quiet. Ellie’s mother met us at the door, her face pale and solemn.
“He passed away this morning,” she said gently.
“Just after you left, Ellie.”
The words hit my dad like a physical blow.
He staggered back, his breath hitching as he shook his head.
“No,” he murmured, his voice cracking. “No, we made a promise.”
He sank into a chair, his shoulders heaving with the kind of grief I’d never seen from him before. This was the man who had been my rock, my hero, and now he was breaking right in front of me.
It shattered something in me to watch it.
I kneeled beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder.
“Dad,” I said quietly.
“The promise was honored. He sent Ellie and he sent the card.
He remembered you.”
He looked at me, his eyes red and raw. “But I didn’t get to see him.
I didn’t get to say goodbye.”
I didn’t have the right words to fix it, but I stayed with him, my hand steady on his shoulder as the waves of sorrow crashed over him.
Some promises, I realized, didn’t need witnesses to matter.
Maybe this was one of them.
Source: amomama
