You want to know what a boohooing baby I am? It took me a month to write this review and it wasn't because I was being my normal lazy self. Everytime I tried to write, my eyes just filled with tears. I'm such a baby!Ok.. here it is....When I was a senior in high school, I wanted to go on a big senior trip that was going to occur right after graduation. I had no money. It was just me and my 19 year old sister. The school stated that I could fundraise but that is about all I could do. My sister’s boyfriend’s father (Don) was always being kind to my sister and me. He bought us dinners, made sure we had clothes, even came to fix our roof in the middle of a storm. So, of course, he offered to sell the boxes of chocolates I had. I gave him two boxes and the very next day, he said he needed more. By the end of the 2nd week, he had sold 8 boxes of chocolate. He was on the school site council (or something like that) and he said that the chocolate went fast. By the end of week 6 (and 15 boxes of chocolate later), I was informed that I received a scholarship (didn’t even know there was one) and I would be able to go on my school trip. One week before I was set to graduate, Don died. I didn’t even know he was sick. I found out later that he was battling cancer for two years but wanted only his wife and son to know. At the party (yes, he wanted a party) after the funeral, his wife brought me down to the basement. She showed me the 15 boxes of chocolate in the corner. He didn’t have the strength to even go the meetings but he wanted me to go on my trip so he bought all the boxes. I was stunned and felt incredibly guilty. Here was a loving man, dying of cancer and I was so incredibly blinded by my own needs, I didn’t even see his pain. I tried to refuse the money (and yes, he was responsible for the scholarship) but his wife told me simply “you gave him a bit of life, even when his time was near”.I felt such anger at Don for “tricking” me and for dying. He was the closest thing I had to a dad. He was the first grown man to care for me. I would have loved to spend more time with just him rather than dealing with my stupid trip. But of course, he was gone and I thought my anger was inappropriate. I wish I had this book back then. Oh how I wish. Besides being a beautiful, creative story with unbelievable illustrations, it has such a strong lesson to be told about dying, anger, and the people left behind.
