loss
— During Ireland's potato famine, a boy struggles to support his family after his sister Molly dies of tuberculosis, eventually escaping to America.
— A 12-year-old searches frantically for her free-roaming cat Comet, posts flyers around the neighborhood, and finally reunites with him after a neighbor rescues him from a rooftop light well.
— In drought-stricken Africa, a girl's beloved zebra friend is sacrificed to save her dying mother, then the rains finally come.
— During WWI's Christmas truce of 1914, a young soldier gives his aunt's ugly sweater to a sick German soldier who returns it decades later on a lonely Christmas Eve.
— An 11-year-old recalls visiting her mother's cousin Marie on an Irish farm, witnessing her sudden illness, and learning of her death two weeks later on St. Patrick's Day.
— During the Irish Potato Famine, a girl on a coffin ship to America remembers losing her family to starvation and the promise she couldn't keep to her dying sister.
— After his older brother leaves for college, a boy finds solace in their old fort and rescues a fallen fledgling, seeing his own loss reflected in the abandoned bird.
— A granddaughter recalls tea and conversation with her grandmother, then confronts the shock of learning her grandmother had lost her will to live.
— When Leo announces he's moving to New York City, his best friend Anabeth gives him a drawing of them biking by Seneca Lake, which he keeps for nine years.
— A girl reluctantly moves from Wisconsin to Ireland, loses her best friend's photo at the Cliffs of Moher, then discovers a hidden letter from a lonely local girl seeking friendship.