I used to sit in the bleachers watching him sprint across football fields and think about the people who wondered if I could raise a child.
As if love depended on height.
As if fatherhood required reaching the top shelf without help.
As if carrying someone only meant physically lifting them.
Years passed faster than I expected.
Marcus became a man.
And I became old.
The doctors warned me it would happen eventually. Achondroplasia puts pressure on the spine and joints over time. By my sixties, pain had become part of every morning. Then came the cane. Then surgeries. Then days when even grocery shopping exhausted me.
I tried hiding how bad it was getting.
Parents do that sometimes. We want our children to keep seeing us as strong long after strength starts slipping away.
