Because I had Melissa.
When Jenna died, our daughter was just four years old.
Now she’s six and growing up to be an incredibly kind and joyful little girl. Sometimes she smiles exactly like her mother, and in those moments, my heart fills with both joy and sorrow.
Since then, it’s just the two of us.
I work as a heating and air conditioning repair technician. It’s an honest job, but the money is tight. Most of my paycheck disappears immediately in bills.
Sometimes I feel like they arrive faster than I can pay them.
Some nights I sit at the kitchen table and spread out the envelopes with the bills, trying to figure out which ones can wait another week.
But despite all that, Melissa never complains.
She knows how to find joy in the simplest things.
One afternoon she came running home from preschool so fast her backpack bounced on her back.
“Daddy! Guess what!”
I smiled.
“What happened?”
She was beaming with joy.
“There’s going to be a graduation ceremony at preschool! Next Friday!”
