I went with her to help carry boxes.

The children sat in a semicircle listening to a retired mechanic describe how machines were built.

One small boy interrupted to ask whether machines could get lonely.

Meredith crouched beside him and said that people, not machines, were the ones who needed someone to notice when they felt alone.

Watching her, I thought about the kind of parent she might be and the kind of man I would need to become before asking her to share that work with me.

At home she asked what I’d been thinking about during the program.