Trixie sighed and rolled over in her bed. Outside her window, she could see that the sun was already shining. She supposed it was going to be a beautiful spring day. But for Trixie, it had the markings of being a dark day. She hated it when she woke up in a melancholy mood. After staring at her ceiling for almost half an hour, Trixie kicked off the covers and eased herself out of bed. She padded down the stairs and wandered into the kitchen. She fixed herself a cup of tea and took it into the living room. Sitting down in a big, comfortable chair, Trixie fixated on one of her favorite pictures of her son. She stared at the photo, willing the young man to come to life. But the smiling boy simply stared back at her.

Trixie spent the rest of the morning wandering around the house, doing a few chores and shedding a few tears. The sunshine finally beckoned to her and she decided that she should go for a run. She knew that the run would help her shake her somber mood.

A few minutes later, Trixie was pounding down Glen Road as the music played loudly in her headset. She looked up at the beautiful blue sky and the bright sunshine. As she focused back on the deserted road, she noticed a tiny butterfly as it flitted all around her. Trixie smiled at it as she continued to run. The butterfly stayed with her, its' wings fluttering. After a while, Trixie came to the end of her run and walked back to the front porch of her house where she sat down in the sunlight.

All her life, she had been terrified she would lose somebody she loved, someone more dear to her than her own life. She could not imagine how she could survive such unbearable pain. And then, on that gray winter day, Trixie faced her fear when she kissed her son good bye. She knew, in her heart, that he trusted her to be strong and that she would help others through their pain and confusion. And so for him, she did. She thought of his beautiful eyes and how they sparkled when he told a joke. She liked to think that his eyes sparkled at her as she tried to make him proud of her.

"Oh, my beloved son," she whispered. "There are too many days when I just don’t want to do this anymore. How could you ever think that I could be strong enough to get through this?"

But she would never let her son down. For the rest of her life, she would seek to honor him by staying strong, helping others and moving forward. Blowing a kiss upward, Trixie smiled up at the wispy clouds above and went into the house.