a Patriotic Son-A Mother's Story

Portrait of Family Love

She gazed straight at the wall, her eyes quickly welling up with tears. She wasn't too surprised over the fact she could still shed tears, even though her eyes felt like they had hot specks of desert sand in them. Still, she refused to look away. In front of her was a portrait of her family bordered by a deep mahogany frame, center positioned on the living room wall. It was your typical family pose, not particularly different than any other you'd probably observe in other homes across the country.

Her husband, Jeff, stood behind two overstuffed chairs, a well-practiced smile on his face. Both of his hands were braced on top of two chairs. She sat bolt upright in one chair holding their youngest child, six month old Ryan, dressed in a typical infant boy's baseball outfit. His cap was tilted lopsided, shielding his bald head. Her four year old daughter, Chloe, sat in the chair next to hers, dressed in a frilly pink dress. She remembered how long it took to get Chloe to stop swinging her legs back and forth and sit still for a few seconds, while the photographer hustled to snap the image of their perfectly posed family. When the photograph was finally captured she remembered the photographer's relieved sigh, as if he was saying, "Thank the stars, they're done."

During particularly rough family moments she often stood in this same spot, basking in the peaceful image of her loving, put together family. The portrait was taken over twenty-four years ago, but even though she had several more portraits taken after it, she never removed this particular one. It always held a prominent place in her home, even through three hectic moves.

Now her eyes focused on her son's face with his chubby angelic expression, a portrait of pure innocence. As Ryan grew, this same angelic expression managed to always wiggle him out of serious trouble. It just melted her heart, and she'd completely forget what he'd done to make her so mad in the first place, when she wanted to threaten him with grounding for forever and a day.