Instead he said, “When Hannah was six, she asked me if I was going to stay.”

I watched him grip the sides of the podium.

“I told her that if she would have me, I’d like to.

She considered that very seriously and then asked whether staying meant I had to attend her school performances.

I said yes.

She told me I should know she wasn’t very good at singing.”

The room laughed softly.

“I stayed,” he continued.