I have thought about that a thousand times since, and I will tell you at the end of all this what I would do differently.

But in the moment I was frozen, and Tommy was not, and my son looked out over that ballroom full of the people who had spent his whole life deciding he was not enough, and he found Tracy’s face in the crowd, and he spoke into the microphone in a voice that shook only a little.

“I want to thank you,” Tommy said, “for taking my dad off our hands.

As of today, you’re officially responsible for him.” A gasp went through the room, and then a few horrified, involuntary laughs, and a furious hiss of “Tommy!” from Joe.