(...) I`d learned from experience that hugging someone only encouraged the person to cry even harder and I always wanted the tears to stop. But I was beginning to understand that there would always be sadness when it comes to our mother. A layer of sorrow was now knit through us so certain moments, memories, even new experiences, would tap it, and this was one of those moments. So instead of leaving Jim alone until the tears dried up and disappeared, I mustered to courage to reach out and wrap my arms around him, and when I did, he bent down and cried even harder into my shoulder. I was willing to be his shoulder as long as he needed me to be. This was how we survived, I was learning.