The entire evening was a combination of sweet and bitter. It was sweet because Kadiatou Diallo told us beautiful stories of her baby boy that I had never heard before — about his love of reading, his brilliant ability to speak five languages fluently, their world travels together before Amadou ventured off to the United States for school, and so much more. See, she knew him for over 8,000 days before he became a headline. She changed his diapers, fed him, groomed him, dressed him, nurtured and encouraged him. Just a young teenage girl herself when she was married and gave birth to Amadou in 1975, she told us that she and Amadou grew up together. From Guinea in West Africa, their family traveled the globe and lived in Togo, Bangkok and Singapore. They were close.