Jon Petz, a magician, came to our school for our professional development day. He performed some incredible tricks, but more than that, he really solidified my belief that everything happens for a reason and that people are placed in our paths at exactly the right time.

At the time, I had just found out about some medical things my sister was going through, and I desperately needed the reassurance that, somehow, everything would unfold the way it was meant to. Hearing Jon speak and watching him perform felt like that reassurance coming at exactly the moment I needed it. He told us the story about this card and I knew I wanted to help carry on this tradition.

Now, I’ve been walking through something entirely different. My grandmother has been in hospice, and she passed away late last night.

Today was picture day at school. As a teacher, I always have such a hard time deciding what to wear for picture day. But today, for some reason, the decision felt easy. I put on the yellow dress I’m planning to wear to my grandmother’s funeral.

Yellow was her favorite color. It’s bright and happy, just like I will always remember her.

My grandma kept all of my school pictures. She was so excited to get them every year, and I was always so excited to give them to her. She has everything from kindergarten through my third year of teaching. Those pictures are a little timeline of my life that she lovingly held onto.

And today, I realized that maybe one of the best ways I can say goodbye to her is to let her have one last picture of me.

The photographer who took my picture today tried to email it to me so I could have it printed this weekend and send it with her. When it didn’t come through and I still hadn’t received it by the end of the day, I went back down to find him.

He had already packed everything up.

But remembering why I needed the picture, he unpacked everything, set it all back up, and took my picture again.

I am so incredibly grateful that he happened to be my photographer today. He probably didn’t realize it in that moment, but he will forever be a small, beautiful part of my goodbye to my grandma.

Maybe it’s just a coincidence.

But I don’t think so.

I think some people really are placed in our paths at exactly the right time. I think some moments happen exactly when they’re supposed to. And I think, somehow, my grandma got her last school picture of me today—wearing her favorite color, on a day when I needed her more than ever.

I’ll carry that with me forever.