A man with thick black hair cradles a small baby to his chest.

He nuzzles her small newly born head.

“Bea” The voyager through life.

A man with black hair laughs as his baby girl who isn’t such a baby anymore runs off on her first day of school.

She stops at the gate and he wonders if something is wrong.

She turns around and sprints at him, launching herself for his neck almost toppling them both over. She kisses the top of his head.

“Kiss for Daddy!” She giggles and runs back for school before she can get scolded by the schoolmaster.

He stares stunned and shakes his head in disbelief and walks for his car.

A man with black hair sighs as his daughter graduates middle school.

In his head she’ll always be his baby girl.

She laughs and trots over to him, she wraps her arms around his waist and squeezes.

“Kiss for Daddy?” She asks, her large green eyes pleading.

He laughs and obliges her, bending down so she can plant a kiss on his head.

A man with gray hair stares forlorn at a tomb being lowered into the earth.

He squeezes the hand of his baby. His beloved is gone, taken before her time, but he has her legacy.

She sniffles, her auburn hair the only color in the drab rainy scene.

The other people leave, the world goes on.

They slowly walk back to the car.

As they drive home she leans over and kisses him on the top of his head.

“A kiss for Daddy” she chokes out.

High school graduations were never so dismal.

An old man with white hair rocks back and forth in his chair watching with detached amusement as a woman rushes around the house getting ready for her date.

She hops around on one foot while trying to slide the other into a ballerina flat, one of her hands is holding her purse, the other the shoe.

The doorbell rings and she pales and mumbles random things before dashing to get it, nearly tripping in the process.

She opens the door and her light laughter tinkles out through the hallways, tickling his ear. He almost smiles, almost.

She comes to him and places a kiss on his white head.

“A kiss for Daddy” she sends him a smile that could melt Antarctica and heads off on her date.

A man with thinning white hair places a hand on his baby’s auburn head.

She sobs, he wasn’t the right one for her, he should have comforted her, he should have said something.

He can’t.

She understands this.

The various wires and tubes can only give him so much strength, so when his frame rattles with the effort of taking in enough oxygen to speak she presses a hand to his cheek.

She gets up and plants a kiss on his thinning hair.

“A kiss for Daddy” she whispers loud enough for him to hear and she goes to sleep, head lying in his lap.

An ancient man with silver hair lies in a bed wires and tubes running into his thin, pale, brittle arms.

His eyes are glazed over.

Soon he’d be with his beloved, but first his baby girl needed him.

A woman with auburn hair sobs next to him, a man with brown hair and hazel eyes holds her as he lets out his own soft sobs. A toddler who doesn’t know what is going on just stares, looking back and forth from his parents to the old man in the bed. Not knowing why everyone else is crying, he starts to cry too.

The machines start beeping loudly, the nurses and doctors rush in and soothe the angry devices.

They exchange hurried words with the couple.

The woman with auburn hair comes to the old man. Her mouth opens and closes for, no words escaping.

She finally leans over and kisses his soft silver hair, droplets of water falling with the kiss.

“A kiss for Daddy” he almost smiles, if he could he would.

He croaks “Bea” and dies.

She sobs, but moves on. She is the voyager of life, she continues.

The little boy stares up at his mother, he toddles over to her as all toddlers do and tugs at her skirt.

She wipes her tears and tries to look happy for him; it comes out pained like a grimace.

“Yes Peter?” she whispers, voice hoarse from crying.

He tugs her skirt again and she kneels down, picking him up.

He places a kiss on her head.

“Kiss for Mommy” he says.