I found my son’s old employee badge in the rubbish and took it back out

Dear Delyara, I clean hotel rooms. My son worked at the same hotel for one summer when he was eighteen before leaving for university. He hated the uniform and counted every day until he could quit. He is thirty now and lives in Canada. Today, management cleared old lockers, and someone threw a pile of expired staff cards into a bin. I saw my son’s face among them. Skinny, serious, terrible haircut. I picked it out. One supervisor laughed and said, “Why do you want that? It doesn’t work anymore.” I said I know. When my son worked here, he used to pretend not to know me if I passed him while pushing the housekeeping trolley. Not cruelly. He was young and embarrassed that his mother cleaned rooms. Years later, he apologized without me asking. He sends money now and tells everyone I worked too hard for him. I do not need repayment for floors I cleaned. Still, I brought the badge home. His photograph is proof he once stood in the same corridors and discovered work from the other side of the hotel door. Tonight, I sent him a picture of it. He replied, “Please destroy that haircut immediately.” I laughed for five minutes. I am keeping it.