Before I left, the kind woman packed leftovers I didn’t ask for. She gave me a hug that felt like the kind you forget you need until someone gives it to you.
“Come back anytime, dear. You and Cole… you’re not strangers anymore.”
I walked back in the cold, Mom’s Christmas keepsake tucked safely in my pocket.
I believed her.
Cole trotted beside me, tail high, like he’d completed some mission I didn’t fully understand but was grateful for, anyway.
When I got to Mom’s house, I finally finished decorating the tree.
I placed the glass cardinal front and center, exactly where she always put it.
And for once, the silence in the house didn’t feel empty.
It felt full… full of Mom. Full of memories that hurt but also held me together.
And for once, the silence in the house
I sat on the couch with Cole curled in my lap, his warmth steady and real.
And I whispered into the quiet, “Thank you, Mom. For Cole. For the light. For not letting me fall apart.”
I don’t know whether she heard me. But it felt right to say it.
Grief isn’t about letting go. It’s about learning to carry what you’ve lost while still finding reasons to keep living.
And sometimes, those reasons come back to you on Christmas Eve, dirty and determined, disguised as a cat, leading you exactly where you need to go.
Not to forget. But to remember you’re not alone.
Grief isn’t about letting go.
Here’s another touching story about a woman who opens the door to a crying little girl at her doorstep, not knowing it was fate’s way of tying two broken people together.
