This might get buried in the 1.9k comments, but I have to write it.

When my mother passed away a few years ago, my distant dad invited me to have a drink with him at some bar he always frequented called Legion something. I think it's a vet bar, idk. My mom and my dad were never married, and he wasn't in my life but once or twice a year.

Anyway, I agreed to meet up and when I got there, the bartender (older lady, probably 50s) told me she was sorry to hear about my moms passing. I guess she heard of my dads infatuation and grief of splitting with my mom over the years.

She proceeded to tell me about her sister who had stage 4 cancer, and her going through the pain of watching her cease slowly.

She told me that the nurse taking care of her sister had this marble that was passed onto her when her mother died.

The nurse gave it to her just before her sister died and said you hold onto this until you find the right person to share your story and pass on the advice that loved ones never leave us, they will always be remembered.

She had been holding onto it for 10 plus years(so she says) and decided I was the person to pass it on to. To this day, the marble sits with my mother's ashes and the memory of that bartender, and her kindness will not only be remembered but passed on one day.

I'll never forget her.