Activity

Maybe you could show him being really energetic at the beginning of the story, then really lethargic after he loses his children, then when his son comes back it’s like he gets a second chance at life too. You wouldn’t even need to show the second part in real time, you could just have them barely scrape by because the dad is too depressed to work, and then when the son gets home he can suddenly be wanting to teach Joshua his old craft, hang out with old friends, and other stuff that shows he’s coming back to “life”. You could also really drive it home by having Joshua’s mom say something like, “He hasn’t been this happy in years.” (Or something like that. Dialogue isn’t my strong suit. XD )