Family Obligations
By Vivien Dean and Rick R. Reed
Tate D’Angelo cast a look back at the casket, thinking of all the things that go through a son’s mind when his father dies. A cavalcade of memories sprang forth—events that had seen him and his father through infancy, childhood, adolescence, and, finally, his adulthood. Those memories, like everyone’s, were filled with good times and bad, with holidays and special days, losses and celebrations, landmarks, and the shifting changes brought about by the passage of time.
Tate supposed losing his father at age sixty-two from pancreatic cancer was yet another of those changes. Tate was half his father’s age, with a family of his own now, yet he felt suddenly alone in the world. He knew that in spite of the memories he carried in his heart, he
