For 18 years, my son received a mysterious envelope every birthday—when he finally opened the last one, he discovered who had been sending them all along

I’m gone. I wanted you to have one sign every year that someone was thinking about you. Not enough to spoil you. Just enough that on your birthday, no matter what else life was doing, you would know you were being remembered.”

Adrian blinked hard.

“I knew I would not get to watch you grow up. I knew there would be school pictures I would never see and continue reading …