I was frozen, useless, gone.

But I was able to save my son, because saving my son ran on a different circuit entirely, one that my own suffering could not disable.

Leo’s hurt did not add to my burden that day.

Leo’s hurt was the thing that lifted me out of my own.

He needed me, and the needing reached down past the wreckage and pulled out a version of me that could stand and walk and protect him — and I have been grateful, ever since, that at the worst moment of my life I was not alone, because being needed by him was the only thing in that cabin strong enough to make me move.

Chapter 8 — Stay Right Here