I still missed Ryan every day.

Sometimes a tool would fall from a shelf and I would turn, ready to call for him.

Sometimes Paige’s favorite song would come on the radio and Harper would ask me to turn it louder.

The new relatives did not cure that missing.

They gave us new ways to hold the memories without pretending the loss had disappeared.

On a cold Friday afternoon, one year after the ring was found, Harper and I went back to Target.

She checked the seasonal aisle behind the cardboard displays out of habit.