My husband refused to walk my 17-year-old daughter, his stepdaughter for nine years, at her high school senior night. “That’s something a real father should do,” he told her. But when her name was announced Thursday evening, her 79-year-old grandfather appeared with his walking cane and proudly accompanied her onto the court.

Kaylee and Dad were maybe ten feet from center court.

Travis lengthened his stride. And he caught up to them.

He didn’t say anything to them.

He didn’t ask.

He just came up on Kaylee’s other side. Her left. The side away from the cane.

And he offered her his arm. The way you would at a wedding.

Kaylee stopped walking.

She looked at his arm.

She looked up at his face.

I couldn’t see her expression from where I was. But I could see her shoulders.

They went up.

And then they came down.

And she put her hand through his arm.

And the three of them walked the last ten feet together.

Cane, step, step.

Cane, step, step.

Travis matched my father’s pace exactly.