I Saw a Bracelet My Missing Daughter and I Had Made on a Baristas Wrist – So I Asked, Where Did You Get It?

The healing process was slow. Over the following months, I traveled back and forth, slowly integrating myself into the fabric of their lives. I met Luke properly and saw the protective, steady love he provided for my daughter. I saw my granddaughters grow, and I realized that while I had missed so much, there was still so much left to gain.

That Christmas, seven years after the silence began, I sat in Hannah’s living room. The air was filled with the scent of cinnamon and the chaotic, beautiful noise of children tearing into wrapping paper. Luke was in the kitchen, and Hannah was sitting beside me, her head resting on my shoulder. The snow began to fall outside, dusting the world in white, just like the afternoon we had made that crooked-knot bracelet. For the first time in nearly a decade, I didn’t have to survive the season. I was finally, after a lifetime of searching, home.