Interesting. Did Mr. Young’s mother remarry and take on a different last name?

Excellent job showing the downward spiral of Joe’s life. I wonder how deep his relationship with his mother goes.

(Sorry I didn’t comment earlier. Ficly seems to have swallowed the sequel notification.)

That is where I was going with the name change. Not uncommon in today’s day and age. I hope it didn’t throw off the story too much. I definitely deliberated keeping the same name but in the end I wanted there to be a difference between them. It was almost an ex-wife but then he wouldn’t have been as emotional.
Thank you for the pencils! :)

Way to change setting and pull everything right back into context. The impending losses demonstrates a subtle method of contrast, giving us a window into his feelings.

That was lovely. You really tied it all together in the last line. It seems disconnected from the prequel, but that’s okay since either direction can be independant (no way of knowing who wrote first either). I liked the change of perspective, kind of a little look at the ripple effect of illness and disease.