Matt Click We all needed it, to fill the void Tom left.” I sit silently, Mom’s words easing into my mind. I’ve heard it all before, of course. How special I am to the family. How my birth brought everyone back together from the brink. How everyone was there in the waiting room, eagerly anticipating my birth. I wonder if I’ve managed to fill the hole my Grandpa Tom left behind. I wonder if I ever will. “Tom was a really great guy,” she says. Tears shimmer faintly in her eyes. “So I hear,” I say quietly. Biblically, my name means Gift from God. My middle name is Thomas.
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