After breakfast, David asked if the two of them would come with him on a drive before he left for school and they agreed.

“Where are we going?” Jimmy said.

“You’ll see,” David said.

On the way, David talked about his favorite professor, a former judge who David discovered had signed the legal papers to finalize his adoption. “It’s crazy that he would come back into my life after all these years,” he said. “He’s a real friend and mentor to me now.”

Susan smiled and watched the familiar scenery. When David made the turn into the cemetery, her heart fluttered. She and Jimmy got out, and David opened the trunk and pulled out two arrangements of yellow lilies and baby’s breath, giving one to her and one to Jimmy.

They walked to the stones of her sons and she knelt and placed the bouquet by John’s grave. Jimmy placed the flowers by Michael’s.

David knelt with them. “You know, you said something to me when I was in the hospital waiting for surgery. Do you remember?”

Those few days were etched in her mind, but she wasn’t sure what she had said.

“You said you were angry with God for a long time after John and Michael died. But you realized that all of that loss made a place in your heart and your home for me. You said you couldn’t imagine life without me.”

Susan nodded and hugged David. “That was true. It still is. I can’t imagine it.”

“Neither of us can,” Jimmy said.

“I just wanted to come here before I head back and thank God for my brothers. Nate said the film shows that every life is precious, and theirs were too, even though they didn’t live long.”

“David, that’s so sweet that you would remember two little babies you never even met.”

“God has used their lives in mine. I want to remember their stories.” He put a hand on the ground and stood. “You’ve taught me that you can’t pick and choose what’s part of your story. It’s all there for a purpose. I have two brothers and two sisters now.”

David reached into his pocket and pulled out two fishing lures and placed one in front of John’s grave and the other in front of Michael’s. “I can’t wait to meet you two,” he said, patting the stones. “I promise we’ll go fishing one day in heaven.”

“I want to be there for that,” Jimmy said.

Susan walked back to the car and Jimmy caught up with her and slipped a hand into hers.

When they got home, David said goodbye and got in his car and began to drive away, then stopped and leaned out the window.