Click here for a shorter and completely different version of this comic that I ultimately decided was visually out of place. I liked the color metaphor, but it’s not the WWW way and it felt inconsistent with Diane’s urging from the last strip. Still, I did like how it looked, and I thought you all might like it as well. I’d usually refrain from showing different versions of a strip, but they both reveal the same information to both the reader and Mary, just in different words, so I’m not too worried.

Anyway, Mary, Beth and Mark’s story is far from over, but with that hug, let’s put a bookmark on it and come back to it later, eh? I do hope y’all didn’t mind me taking this past month to explore a more serious story. Drama is new territory for me, and I figured the only way to learn is by doing.

I WANTED to write something poignant and poetic about the story, but I’ll be honest, I only wrote the rest of the story because I wanted to draw this hug at the end. And really, that’s all that needs to be seen here; the loving embrace of a parent and their child… There’s not a thing on Earth more beautiful.