“June,” his mom breathes out, smiling. She looks fragile, but her spirit is strong. “Finally,” she says, and pulls me into a hug, and it feels like a hug I’ve been waiting for my whole life. It’s the kind of embrace I never received as a child, the kind that makes you feel loved and protected. I think of a toddler coming out of a pool and being wrapped in a towel by their mother, receiving a tenderness you would never know existed until you feel it for yourself.
