Shay found Beau sitting on the floor of the kitchen, in the dark, clutching a mostly empty fifth of rum. She didn’t flip on the lights, simply slid down the cabinets until she was shoulder to shoulder with him. He leaned his head against her. “Dad died.” “Oh.” Shay grabbed for his hand.

He didn’t cry. She wasn’t surprised. Beau had a complicated relationship with his father, one that couldn’t be summed up by weeping or rejoicing. It was best described as exactly this: a dark kitchen floor and a bottle of alcohol. “He died a long time ago,” Beau finally said. “That wasn’t Dad in there.”

Shay nodded, her fingers finding a small, round scar on Beau’s hand. If you didn’t know the damaged skin was there, it could go unnoticed. She knew it was there. She’d seen it happen.

They didn’t say anything the rest of the night, but Shay stayed right there with him until morning.

—Brianna Labuskes: The Truth You Told

Holly Margl is the award-winning author of Witnessing Grief; Inviting Trauma and Loss to Our Coaching Conversations, An Enneagram Perspective, coach, coach mentor, and trainer specializing in grief, trauma, and the Enneagram.