Silence.
“She picked this dress after one of her hospital appointments.”
He looked down at it.
“She died before she could wear it.”
Somebody started crying behind me.
Ethan continued.
“Before Mary died, she made me promise I wouldn’t leave this dress hanging in a closet.”
“She wanted our mom to see both of us graduate.”
He lifted the yellow flower.
“She picked this outside Willowcrest Medical Center the day we bought the dress.”
“She asked me to give it to Mom today.”
Then Ethan looked across the auditorium.
“I knew people would laugh.”
Several students lowered their heads.
“I almost broke my promise because of that.”
My throat tightened.
Then he looked directly at me.
“But Mary was more afraid of being forgotten…”
Pause.
“…than I was afraid of being laughed at.”
That sentence changed the room.
THE SCREEN BEHIND ETHAN LIT UP
A photograph appeared.
Mary.
Her graduation portrait.
