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.

laptop.

Kaylee typed for a while.

Then she turned her screen around so we could both see it.

And she didn’t say a word.

She just waited. The way I’d waited at that table in October. The way her grandpa had waited, holding out that rose.

Travis looked at the screen.

He took off his reading glasses.

And he didn’t say anything for a long time.

Under her name, on the line that said Parents, there were three names.

Jodi Brandt.

Travis Brandt.

Duane Ostrem.

Travis reached across the table and touched the edge of that laptop screen. Just the edge. Like it might break.

“You spelled Ostrem right,” he finally said. His voice was rough. “Your grandpa will want to know

you spelled it right.”

“I know how to spell my own grandpa’s name, Travis.”