Your dad’s boots are cracked in the exact places he kept going. Read them like a résumé.

Objects wear out in the shape of the work done in them. Creases open where a foot bends because somebody kept moving on a day they would rather have stopped, and the pattern belongs to one person’s years. Read that way, old gear is a record of effort nobody wrote down. You can learn a great deal about someone from what they have worn out.

Find something at home that belongs to a parent and is obviously worn, and ask about it this week. Boots, a bag, a tool. Ask what job did that to it, and let the answer take as long as it takes.