I really like that story. Having lost my dad this year, I feel ya. It’s weird to walk in a world where your parents aren’t around any more.
Although I don’t play her as much due to having hundreds of alts, my level 50 Beast/Dark MM is probably filling a similar role for me. I’ve been involved with animal rescue for 41 years, so I didn’t really take to it right away because they cry when they die, but once I decided the various animals were the perfect spirit incarnations of the breed, it became immediately palatable. You can’t kill a ghost, only temporarily disrupt their ectoplasmic essence. So I get to have my cake and eat it, too.
For anyone who feels the same way, I highly recommend the book Elatsoe, which features ghost animals, and in one scene uses them spectacularly to nail a Crowning Moment of Awesome.