I placed Emmett’s old red tool chest on my garage workbench and spent the afternoon cleaning years of dust from the handles. Inside, tucked beneath a tray of screwdrivers, I found an envelope containing several notes he had written before he died. One sentence stopped me completely: “Roz, never make yourself smaller so someone else can live larger.” I sat there for a long time before calling a contractor about the window, faucet, and every repair I had postponed.
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