Storied Backstory (All The Things I Meant To Be)

"All The Things I Meant To Be" is a story about love, loss, and not taking anything or anyone for granted. It is a story of a man coming to terms with his fate, looking back on his life decisions, and making one last effort to get things right.
If you asked me who my favorite character in my book of short stories is, I would say Brian Mitchell without hesitation. He is the first character in "Storied Existence" that I created. That was around twenty years ago. I originally wrote the story back then as more of a screenplay idea. To make it a short story, I cut a few characters, and spent a little more time working on how Brian's memories of his father Daniel play into the story.
In the original story, I made Brian a bit more of a jerk in the beginning. He had a couple of run-ins at his job in addition to having already fallen out with his brother, Scott. I cut that down to just his unapologetic stance toward Scott after "stealing" his girlfriend. The girlfriend, Alison, is a confident woman who knows what she wants. I wanted to give Brian someone who would ambush him, get him to loosen up. I imagined Alison as someone who could make him laugh and get him to stop being married to his job. I didn't really have a good grasp of the breakup unfolding, so I started the story with them already being broken up.
Brian and his mother, Connie, are like best friends. Both Connie and Alison factored into the rift between the brothers. I saw Connie as someone completely devoted to her sons, always putting them first. Just an all-around great mother, who raised them alone after her husband's death, Connie worries about them and doesn't give a thought to her own happiness.
At the beginning of the story, Brian's personal life is a mess. He's also thinking about his father, whom he lost too soon, and as the story goes on, it becomes about unresolved issues and Brian's feelings of inadequacy. He sees Daniel through the eyes of a nine-year-old boy. Daniel was like Super Dad. I just thought of him as someone intelligent, adventurous, good at everything, and cool, with a big heart, who is a hero to his sons. Being the child of a single mom myself, I was inspired by uncles and great-uncles, and motorcycle-riding father figures I've known. I added little things in at the last minute, like the family dog, because, well, of course they'd have a dog!
In "All The Things I Meant To Be", I saw a father and two sons, the differences and similarities between them, sibling rivalry, reflection, and forgiveness. Brian grapples with his mistakes, and his feelings for Alison, the woman he let walk out the door.
I cried for Brian as a writer. I wanted everything for him. I tried to give him his father back in some ways. And I injected just a little bit of mystery into the story.
A fun side note to the story is that I took the title from a CD by a band called The Affordable Floors. Though they are from Pittsburgh, that's not why I set the story there. I just like Pittsburgh.