Look at my son play, laughing and bounding across the grass.
I should be happy and at peace.
And I am. But yet… my heart brims with grief.
For my father.
He never saw his son like this, never felt this joy.
I was only a youngling when he was taken
I grieve because I know happiness he didn't, I'm living the life he should've had
I grieve because I don't remember him or the love I bore him.
I grieve because he never saw me grow and become the man I am now.
I grieve because he never saw me fall in love, marry, take the throne or my son's birth.
I grieve because my father never knew his son… or his grandson.
I grieve because my father never saw his future… and my son can't know his past.
But my grief is not overwhelming and it will not consume me. Though I cannot remember the love I had for my father, I see it in my own son's eyes.
I will tell my son of his grandfather. He will know where he came from, who he came from. My father will live on in my son.