I Was the Only One at My Grandpa’s Funeral Until a General Saw His Ring and Asked Me One Question

he saw me. The smile of someone who has been waiting and was not entirely sure the waiting would pay off.

“Guess you’re the only one who remembered me,” he said.

I told him not to talk that way. I told him my parents would come.

“They won’t,” he said gently. “But that’s all right.”

He died two days later. Quiet, the way he had lived. A breath, and then continue reading …