Every necklace
“When we dance today, I will probably step on your feet like I always do. But I will be holding on to every second of it, and smiling the whole time.”
“Somewhere there is a kid who finally loves to read because you did not give up. You will probably never hear about it, so I wanted to say it for them.”
“Some heroes wear capes. Mine wears scrubs and sensible shoes. You spend every shift taking care of people on their hardest days.”
“Every scraped knee in this house gets seen by a professional. The kids have no idea how lucky that makes them, but I do.”
“You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and loved more than you know. You will never lose. You either win or learn. Aim for the skies and never stop trying. I'm so proud of the incredible woman you are becoming every single day.”
“Today I keep thinking of the little kid who never once gave up. She is still in there, and she just walked across that stage in a cap and gown.”
“I was never any good at the talking part and your grandmother always covered for me. She is not doing it this time. She told me to write it down myself, so here it is.”
“I keep saying the word out loud to people who have not actually asked me anything. It has been months now and it has not worn off once, and I expect it never will.”
“We did not always know what came next this year, but we faced it side by side. I would not want anyone else next to me, not for one minute.”
“I still remember walking you to your very first day of school. You let go of my hand and never looked back, and look at you now.”
“My favorite part of the week is a slow Sunday morning with you. Coffee, the crossword and nowhere we have to be until noon.”
“I used to help with your homework, until it got too hard for me. That was years ago, and you have been leaving me behind ever since.”
“When I saw you in your dress, I forgot everything I had planned to say. So I wrote it down instead. You look beautiful, and you look so happy.”
“You have held a lot of hands through a lot of hard moments. Today I hope someone holds yours and tells you how wonderful you are.”
“When you're too afraid to look ahead, look right beside you. I will always be there. Believe that you're capable of achieving anything. You will never lose, you either win or learn. Aim for the skies.”
“Your students probably sang to you today, and some of them were even in tune. I hope you felt how much you are loved, in that classroom and at home.”
“When I ran out of hope this year, you lent me some of yours. You never made me feel small for needing it, not even once.”
“You have wanted to teach since you lined up your stuffed animals for spelling tests. Today you get a real classroom, and some very lucky kids get you.”
“You gave me time you did not owe me and advice nobody was paying for. And you kept doing it long after it had stopped being any part of your job.”
“He is kind in the small and unglamorous ways that nobody ever gets thanked for. That does not arrive by accident. It gets taught, slowly, by someone patient.”
“All I ever wanted was for you to find someone who makes you laugh. Watching you two together, I know you found that and so much more.”
“You come home tired, but never without a story about someone you helped. That tells me everything I need to know about the kind of nurse you are.”
“I stood outside after you graduated, trying to find something decent. What I managed was a comment about the traffic and where we had parked.”
“You promised to look after me before I was old enough to know what a promise was. And you have been standing just behind me ever since, quiet and entirely there.”