My husband passed away three weeks before the birth of our twins. He had kept his diagnosis a secret for months and left his mother a final instruction.

wrote that he knew he could not give his  children a whole childhood with their father. 

So he tried to leave small parts of himself in the places where he thought they would need him later.

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Those were the letters.

No gifts.

No big farewell drama.

Parts of him.

The voice of a father, waiting in the background for questions he would never hear himself.

At the end of the letter, Michael asked me for just one thing.

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He asked me not to spend every birthday staring at the empty seat where he should have been sitting.

He wrote:

« Look into their faces. That’s where I am. »

I read this sentence over and over again.

Then I looked at the twins.

They were still sitting on the floor at the table, covered all over with birthday cake, arguing over a single ribbon from the box.

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My son looked up and