I’ve written about Mike the student. He loved to read and learn, and rarely went anywhere without a book. While the rest of us were playing Candy Crush, he was studying.

In the last six months of his life, he spent a lot of time in hospitals. Each trip meant packing a bag, and each bag had three books in it. Every time. Including the final one, to hospice house. He didn’t read them. He didn’t even open them. 

I came to realize they were security for him. As long as he had books to read, he wasn’t done learning.