Inside the package was Bennett’s late father’s watch—the one Bennett had begged Rosalind for since college. She had finally decided he was responsible enough to inherit it. When Bennett realized she might take it back home with her, his entire attitude changed. Rosalind looked at the $2,600 recliner and told him her condition was simple: return the chair while the return window was still open, buy Wren a safe high chair, and put the remaining refund into a savings account for his daughter.

Bennett immediately protested that the recliner helped his back. Rosalind didn’t argue. She simply began wrapping the watch again. “Then keep your chair,” she said. “But don’t ask me for something your father worked thirty years to earn while telling your own baby that $150 is too much to spend on her needs.”
The recliner disappeared the following afternoon.

Bennett bought Wren the high chair himself, assembled it in the kitchen, and transferred the rest of the refund into an account for her. More importantly, Rosalind made him take over bedtime three nights a week so he finally understood how exhausting my days had become.

Before flying home, she handed him the watch.

“Your father rested after taking care of his family,” she said. “He never rested instead of taking care of them.”

Bennett never forgot that sentence.