A week later, while reorganizing old documents during a nesting spree, Sandra found a folded court record showing Jake had legally changed his name when he turned eighteen. She remembered asking him about it, casually, and he had immediately offered an explanation she found touching at the time.
Jake told her his father had walked out when he was a child, leaving his mother to raise him alone. When he came of age, he chose to honor her by taking her surname permanently. Sandra had felt proud of him then, and moved by the tenderness underpinning the choice.