At ten, it did not depend on anyone.

It rested on what he himself could do: hold a centerline, read the air, calculate a weight and balance, land an airplane smooth as butter.

No one could take that from him, because it was not on loan from anyone; it was his, earned, in his own hands.

That is what real recovery looks like in a child who has been let down by the person he most trusted.

It is not that he learns to trust that person again, or finds a replacement to believe in.