“Mrs. Harris, there’s something else you should know.”

I turned toward him.

“What is it?”

“Jack didn’t want you to know that he sometimes thought he might die.”

My throat tightened.

“Why?”

“Because he knew you and Mr. Harris needed hope.”

I closed my eyes.

“He was the one going through all of it.”

“I know. I told him that.”

“What did he say?”

Theo smiled sadly.

“He said, ‘Yeah, but Mom worries about everything.’”

I laughed through my tears.

That sounded like Jack.

Theo continued.

“He wasn’t pretending to believe he could get better. He genuinely wanted college, traveling, and all the things he’d always planned.”

Then he paused.

“He just understood there was a chance those things might not happen.”

I looked at him.

“Was he frightened?”

Theo hesitated.

Then nodded.

“Sometimes.”

I began crying again.

He gently put an arm around my shoulders.

“But not every day,” he added. “There were plenty of days when he was happy. He still laughed. He still made plans.”

That mattered more than he could have known.

Jack hadn’t spent his final months simply waiting for the worst.

He’d experienced hope and fear together.

And somehow, he’d made room for both.

For a long time afterward, people remembered the red dress Theo wore to my son’s funeral.

At first, that bothered me.

I didn’t want Jack’s life reduced to an unusual story about his best friend.

But eventually, I understood.

The dress wasn’t really about Theo.

It was evidence that even during the hardest months of his life, Jack had remained himself.

Funny.

Sarcastic.

Stubborn.

Thoughtful.

And always ready with one more ridiculous joke.

Theo tried returning the dress to his sister the following day.

She refused.

“Absolutely not. That dress has funeral memories attached to it now.”

So he kept it.

Years passed.

Theo is twenty-three now.

Last spring, Daniel and I attended his college graduation.

We sat beside his mother, watching him cross the stage in his cap and gown.

Afterward, he hurried toward us and wrapped us both in a hug.

Then he leaned close and whispered, “I almost wore red today.”

Daniel smiled.

“Don’t even think about it.”

Theo laughed.

For graduation, we gave him something that had belonged to Jack.

An ordinary black wristwatch.

It wasn’t expensive, but Jack had worn it almost every day before his illness.

Theo stared at it.

“I can’t accept this.”

I gently closed his fingers around it.

“Yes, you can. Jack would want you to have it.”

He cried.

So did I.

Those moments happen less often now.

But grief doesn’t disappear.

It changes.