Our family was flying on a Make-A-Wish trip for my sick son — halfway through the flight, the pilot said, “Mike, there’s one thing about this trip that you and your parents know nothing about.”

to Nolan.

“Pretend we’re already on vacation,” he whispered.

He did not tell Nolan to be brave. He did not say the medicine would stop hurting.

He simply asked where they should go.

Nolan pointed toward the ceiling.

“The moon,” he had said.

It was the first word he had spoken in three days.

Mike looked at us.

“I remember him.”

I did too.

I remembered the thin continue reading …