Everyone laughed when they sent an eighty-year-old man and his eighteen-year-old wife off to spend their wedding night together. “Let’s see if Grandpa can make it until morning,” one relative joked through a burst of laughter. He didn’t respond. He simply picked up his old briefcase and closed the door. When six relatives opened it the next morning, they stopped laughing when they discovered what he had been protecting all night.

Walter took a moment before responding with absolute sincerity.

“That kind of bond is never decided by a simple piece of legal paper,” Walter assured her.

In the months that followed, Brandon and Nancy shifted their attitudes significantly, though the transformation did not happen overnight.

Brandon made his first gesture by driving over to Chloe’s apartment to fix a broken window lock that had been sticking.

Before leaving the premises, he left his personal business card sitting on her entryway table.

“If you ever need any repairs or run into any trouble and my uncle isn’t available to answer, call me immediately,” Brandon offered sincerely.