Arthur’s widow remarried after the funeral and moved to Florida with her new husband. Liam was 16 then, caught between boyhood and what comes next, and she asked if he could stay with me through high school. I nearly begged her to let him.

Those were wonderful years. I cooked his breakfast every morning, slipped notes into his lunch, and watched him grow from a lanky kid into a man who held doors open for strangers and called to check on me. He worked his way through college, became an architect, and stayed kind through it all.