Chapter 19 — The Letter She Did Not Read

That walk became a tradition.

Every year, on Rebecca’s birthday, Hannah and I choose a new place neither of us has ever been — an art museum one year, a mountain trail the next, a new restaurant where we order dessert first.

It keeps Rebecca’s memory a living part of our ongoing journey, rather than only a source of silent sorrow.

Her mother’s birthday became, over time, not the family’s saddest day but one of its most anticipated: the day we went somewhere new, together, in her honor.