“Hey Ma, this looks like a really cool place! Did grandma take this picture?” Timmy asks

“What’s that honey?” she lobs back. He doesn’t respond.

“Is that grandpa on the bike?”

Sarah, a/k/a Mom, is in the kitchen wrapping dishes and silverware in newspaper. There are several boxes on the kitchen counter and the spots where appliances would go lay empty revealing a different shade of color than the rest of the room

Timmy is sitting on an oversized recliner that was clearly a throne to someone important in the house.

Positioned directly by its side, a fixed, conservative patterned approach to living room sitting.

Theres a basket with two long knitting needles surrounded by a few different colored balls of yarn perched right by this chair

“What’s that you said honey? Sarah says entering the room.

She walks over to Timmy and looks over his shoulder.

“This picture is so cool.” he says excitedly. “Who took it Mom?” he asks.

When Sarah looks down, she lets out an innocently soft

“Oh my!” as tears well up in her eyes. One of them makes its way down her rounded cheek falling off and landing next to the photograph.

Starteled, Timmy sadly looks up at his mother.

“Mom, what’s the matter?” he asks.

“Why are you crying?” he asks

“Oh, its not what you think. Yes, I’m crying but these tears aren’t just sad Timmy. I think grama mixed em with the happy ones. The ones that remind us how much they loved us. All the memories we made together”

“Even love makes you cry? That sucks!” says Timmy

“Sometimes honey”, she says

“Memories make you cry?”, he prods

“Well, yeah, they can do it too.” She says wi

“I don’t get it” he says with a puzzled look on his face

Sarah sits down in her mothers chair, easing herself down slowly making sure to feel the fabric as her hands glide over the arms.

She smiles as the chair seems to have a soothing nature for her.

She inhales deeply through her nose looking for that particular scent her mother used to wear.

When she hits the right spot, her eyes close behind a sweet barely perceptible smile. She knows that the day will come when she wont find it so she breathes it in.

“I really wish I would have known them”

“Me too honeyt, but you were still in my belly when they passed. Your Dad and I got a late start.

Oh boy they would have loved to meet you. Your just like your grandfather”

“Is the picture one of those memories for you?” he says searching for anything.

“What does it mean?”

“Did grandma or grandpa take it?”

Sarah starts to tear up again as she answers her son

“Yeah. Pop took the photo. He always loved to do things for gram so when she said it looked amazing, he snuck off to buy an instant camera so he could take a picture and show her later. He was a hopeless romantic”

“I remember when I first saw it. It was probably, what you said, just really cool to everyone else but for me, it just grabbed me. So I painted over a weekend and what your looking at is a picture of that painting.”

Timmy hesitates briefly then explodes in excitement.

“You painted it! Wow!. Where is it? Where’s the place? Is it at the end of the street or behind billy’s house?

“No, its not there.” she says with a chuckle

“Where is it then?”. Timmy suddenly takes on a confused look and tone.

“Wait just a minute Mom!”. “If you took a picture, after you painted it; then where is the painting?”

“Well, we can’t get anything past you, can we?” she asks

“No sir ree” he says proudly

“Well, its with them. We all figured it was so special that they should have it; forever. “

“So we had a special box made and we placed it between them when we buried them. This way the special moment would always be with them” she says through swollen eyes.

“I don’t get it.” he says

Sarah takes a moment to dab her eyes then drifts off staring at nothing.

“Mom?” he says for attention

Sarah breaks from the stare, cracks a slight grin.

“ Well let me just explain it you curious little man you.” she says while tickling his belly.

“When two people are really close, when they spend that much time together, what does that tell you?”

“Ummm, they love. Each. Other? Like a lot.” he says stumbling through the response.

“Yes. You got it!” she says proudly

“They had a special unbreakable bond honey. You can say from the moment they met, they were best friends and all they wanted to do was be with each other. To spend every minute of every day together. Doing something. Anything. As long as it was with each other”

“Oh.” Timmy says

“Like me and my best friend Todd Sullivan?” he innocently blurts out

Sarah burst into laughter.

“Not quite dear. You’ll see some day. When you find that special person.”

She reaches out and cradles his face in her hands.

“Who could resist this sooo cute face.”

“Its a bond so strong that they happily gave themselves to each other for all of their lives. Of course they had friends, but they had each other and that was the most important thing for both of them.”

“That young man, is the gift they left fort us. How to live and how to love another, and hopefully we might get to do the same thing.” she says proudly.

“That’s kinda, sorta sweet Mom. They sound like really nice people and I know I wont get to meet them but can you tell me more; about them.”

“Let’s start with, WHERE was it take? The picture? what time of day…”. Timmy is besides himself

Sarah leans back in her mothers chair, puts her hands on her legs

“Ok, then. Grandma loved the early morning.”

“Especially the early morning mist…..”