I don’t do visitations or funerals well. I often stand staring in the distance, wringing my hands and fighting the emotions. I’ve missed many because I couldn’t muster up the courage to pay my respects, but not this time.

Perhaps you’re like me. I feel loss so profoundly. This time it was more than that. I looked down the receiving line and saw the young man whose kids won’t have a grandpa at the softball game or dance recital — and I lost it.

Those emotions come from a place of understanding what lies ahead. I’ve stared into that same young face whose mother never saw him walk down the aisle at his wedding and whose father never saw his kid’s first junior high basketball game.

The death of my parents left a ripple effect that I’m not sure truly ever stops.

With every milestone my younger brother or his kids make, I’m reminded just how much my parents would love every moment. How proud they would be of all that they have become. Honestly, just proud of them — period. It hurts.

But I believe the ripple is not all sadness.

I see the wisdom and knowledge my folks instilled in him. Their legacy of keeping family strong and together. And their faith that resounds through the generations. And in there, I find peace.

So, while I may not be able to look at the photographs, still fiddle with my hands, and blink obsessively to stop the tears, this time I stand in a line to pay my respects for a man who only knew me as “little Mindy Spoonster” as a child and whose hugs were so tight, full of love and acceptance.

The adult me he never forgot, sharing how proud he was of what I’d accomplished, telling me how much my folks would be proud and, of course, still hugging with his heart. And it wasn’t just me.

Nick Allen was a man whose ripple will continue to reach likely across the ocean, definitely through the ages.

As for the young man at the end of the receiving line, my heart aches for his loss. Like my brother and so many others who’ve lost parents at such a young age, I feel for his “if only” moments. But I know him and his upbringing. That desire for family and faith will lead him to find peace.

Small towns and rural communities are full of some of the best humans on the planet. May we all get to know them, share their space, encourage their legacy and expand their ripple effect.