“That’s how important that small gift was to me, Drew. You gave me that pin when you graduated from the Fire Academy as a cadet. It was your way of saying ‘thank you.’ But it said so much more to me than that. I told you my father was in the fire department, and how he died in the line of duty back in the 80’s when I was just starting out as a teacher.
“Your gift mended some kind of crazy broken bridge between my father and me. It allowed me to let go a little of the feeling that I had not done enough to make him proud of me. Ridiculous, Drew, I know. But getting that pin from you was some kind of affirmation that I was doing something right, and I appreciated that. I always believed my father appreciated it too.
“There are two things that I would like to leave with you, Drew. The first
