“Those Browns!” said Mom, after Billy’s first visit. “They’re not smart. Short-lived, too.”

Both were true. But when my leg was in a cast, Billy carried me into the school. He blanketed everyone with kindness—warmth personified.

When the cancer got him, age 50, our children and I cried buckets.

Rita Stevens has been a teacher and newspaper writer in west Michigan. She writes every day—three novels and a stack of short stories so far.