Lara’s coffee cup hit the floor when she heard Ben’s voice: “Mommy, I’m afraid.” The terror in her six-year-old’s whisper launched her into a frantic drive home, running red lights to reach him.
She found a scene ripped from her worst memories – their babysitter Ruby unconscious on the floor, water glass shattered nearby. But the real story was in the details: the pillow Ben had placed under Ruby’s head, the ice pack on her forehead, the dinosaur stuffie now damp with his tears. This wasn’t just about today’s emergency; it was about the shadow of his father’s sudden death two years prior.
As Lara held her son that night, watching him finally sleep, she realized parenting’s cruelest truth – sometimes our children’s bravery breaks our hearts most of all. Ben had been stronger than any child should need to be, and that knowledge would forever change how Lara saw her wide-eyed, worm-rescuing little boy.
