My husband refused to walk my 17-year-old daughter, his stepdaughter for nine years, at her high school senior night. “That’s something a real father should do,” he told her. But when her name was announced Thursday evening, her 79-year-old grandfather appeared with his walking cane and proudly accompanied her onto the court.

Kaylee didn’t argue.

“Okay,” she replied.

She washed her plate and disappeared upstairs.

She didn’t even close her bedroom door loudly.

Our eight-year-old

son, Mason, glanced at me, waiting for me to intervene.

But I remained silent.

I had my reasons.

I could have insisted Travis accompany her.

He was generally a caring husband who usually listened when something mattered to me.

But I didn’t want Kaylee standing beside someone who was there only because I’d pressured him.

I wanted Travis to make that decision willingly.

So I gave him time.

He headed outside to the seed shed.

And he never changed his mind.

Later that evening, Kaylee approached me with a question.

“

Mom, could Grandpa walk with me instead?”

My father, Duane, was seventy-nine.

He’d spent fifty-one years milking Holstein cows.

Since undergoing hip surgery, he needed a cane to get around.

I telephoned him Wednesday and explained what had happened.