I was given something almost unbearably rare.

I had already loved my father, fully and freely, for six weeks, before I ever knew he was my father.

The love came first, and the fact came after, and so there was no wall to climb, no stranger to warm to, nothing to forgive across a distance.

There was only the astonishing collapse of everything into one: my patient, my friend, my father, the same beloved man, all along.

Chapter 14 — He Didn’t Abandon You