Dear Alan, I have wanted to write these words for a long time. I love you very much, and I hope it is possible to say that with warmth and gratitude rather than simply as a fan. Your work became part of my life in a way I never expected, but what stayed with me was not only your characters. It was something about you, your presence, your way of seeing things, and the values I associated with the work you left behind. You had an influence on one of the most important decisions of my life. Because of you, I chose nursing. I wanted to spend my life helping people, caring for them, and being there when they were vulnerable. In a small way, I wanted to carry something of the kindness and humanity I saw in you into the way I treat other people. I know you never knew me, and I do not pretend otherwise. But you became something very special to me. In a way, I came to think of you as the father figure I always wished I had — not because I knew you personally, but because of what your work and your presence came to represent to me. There were difficult moments in my life when I needed something steady to hold on to, and somehow your work was there. It gave me comfort, inspiration, and sometimes simply the feeling that I was not alone. I wish you could have known that. I wish I could have told you that the person you never met became a nurse partly because of the example you left behind. I also want you to know that whatever happens in my life, the mark you left on me will never disappear. I will carry it with me in the people I care for, in the choices I make, and in the kind of person I continue trying to become. Thank you, Alan. For your work, for the characters you gave us, and most of all, for the part of your legacy that quietly became a part of me. You are deeply loved, deeply respected, and impossible to forget. With love and gratitude, Mariam