Still Running Together

It’s been two months since Vic passed away, and today Kenzo joined his Running Club again - the first time since they last did it together, back when Vic was recovering from his first transplant.

When I returned to work after Vic’s funeral, I asked if I could keep one of the two Running Club mornings with Kenzo, just for continuity. Thankfully, work agreed.

This morning, as we stood on the oval, Kenzo told me that while running he stretched out his left hand - as if his dad were still holding it from heaven. “It made me feel happy” he said. In that moment, I realised he was finding his own way to keep his dad close.

Not through words or photographs, but through movement, through memory, through something as simple as an outstretched hand. Step after step, lap after lap, Kenzo has found a way to carry his dad with him.

Later, as we walked toward his classroom, he asked if I could create an anime picture of him running with his dad in spirit form - just like the ones I’ve made before. To him, those images aren’t just pictures; they’re a way of seeing his dad again, a way to feel that love continue.

As I watched him, my heart ached and softened all at once. Grief, I realised, isn’t only about absence. Sometimes it is about presence in another form. Kenzo reaches for his dad with an open hand, and I reach for him with open arms. Together, in different ways, we are both still running with Vic.