- Another student stood.
- Then another.
- Soon, much of the graduating class was standing.
- The applause wasn’t coordinated. Some clapped immediately. Others rose gradually.
- But nobody laughed.
-
William waited until Emma reached him.
- He handed her diploma to her.
- “Congratulations, Emma.”
- She accepted it with one hand, steadying Felix’s cutout with the other.
- I raised my phone.
- Through tears, I took the photograph I’d imagined taking years earlier.
-
My daughter stood onstage in her blue cap and gown.
- Beside her smiled her twin brother.
- It wasn’t the picture we’d planned.
- But it was theirs.
- After the ceremony, William approached us near the gym entrance.
- Emma had leaned Felix against the wall while classmates came to speak with her.
-
Several apologized for laughing.
- One girl admitted she’d mistaken the cutout for a joke because she hadn’t attended school when Felix was alive.
- Emma quietly accepted their apologies.
- William waited until they left.
- “Melinda, I’m deeply sorry about today.”
- “I nearly broke my promise to Emma when you threatened to stop her graduation.”
-
He gave a small nod.
- “Felix loved this school,” I said. “Even when he couldn’t attend, he asked about his teachers and classmates every day.”
- “I should have remembered that.”
- William explained that he wanted to discuss a permanent remembrance display with school staff.
- Emma studied him.
- “Please don’t do it just because everyone heard what happened today.”
-
“I won’t. I’d like you and your mother to help decide what’s appropriate.”
- She nodded.
- “Felix would’ve liked that.”
- Then she added, “I wish you’d listened before today.”
- William didn’t argue.
- “So do I.”
- That evening, Emma received messages from classmates sharing memories of Felix.
-
One remembered his ridiculous cartoons in worksheet margins.
- Another remembered him helping with math homework.
- Emma showed me every message.
- For the first time in two years, talking about Felix made her smile more than cry.
- Later, I found her sitting on her bedroom floor beside the cutout.
- She’d removed Felix’s graduation cap and placed it beside her own.
-
Her diploma lay across her knees.
- “Are you okay?” I asked.
- She nodded, then shook her head.
- “I don’t know.”
- I sat beside her.
- “Did today turn out how you hoped?”
- “Mostly.”
-
She touched her diploma.
- “I thought walking across that stage without Felix would mean leaving him behind.”
- I waited.
- “But when I got my diploma, I was happy.”
- “Of course you were.”
- She looked ashamed.
- “Then I felt guilty.”
-
I held her hand.
- “Remember what Felix told you when you talked about graduation?”
- She stared at me.
- I remembered his words.
- “Promise me something, Em. If I don’t get to do all the things we planned, don’t spend your life feeling bad because you still can.”
- Emma closed her eyes.
-
“He made me promise.”
- “I know.”
- “I’ve been trying so hard to remember him that I forgot that part.”
- “You can miss him and still have a wonderful life.”
- She looked at the cutout.
- “I wish he’d been there for real.”
-
“Me too, sweetheart.”
- We sat quietly.
- Then Emma examined her diploma.
- “Mom? Do you think Felix would’ve been proud of me?”
- I looked at my son’s smiling photograph.
- “He would’ve bragged about you to everyone.”
-
Emma laughed.
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