I was practically obsessive about taking family photos especially toward the end of Paul's life. Like I had some sort of premonition. Unfortunately we don't have a lot of early ones without my mother in them. She never wanted to be left out, and she always stood right up front and center. This first here was at the time of Paul's graduation from grade school. The last was just a few months before he died. I am so fortunate to have this many. (Scroll down, there's a poem at the end.) First Trophy So after all the dishes are washed and put away and she checks her emails one last time before closing her computer down, she comes across an old photo, a little crumpled and faded of her boy at age five, her first-born son. His blonde hair cut like an upside-down cereal bowl around his face, his dark blue eyes twinkling, his wide smile showing a gap where his two front teeth should be, he proudly holds up his first soccer trophy to the camera. And … [Read more...]