He remembered that day well. It had been a Sunday, a day for rest, giving those a chance to reminisce through the days of the past. Those lost days that can now only try to bring a smile to the worn sullen mouths of the present. It was on such a day the little boy noticed his mother sitting in the corner looking out the window blankly staring at the world moving past her. Such sadness encased her entire being, the little boy though only seven years of age, knew even his hugs couldn’t break this dark spell. He thought and thought, trying to stretch his young memories searching for his father’s words, the words he had been given to help break through shadowy gloom such as this. He remembered he needed to find something, something that could represent strength, empathy, hope and peace all at once. An object so strong that it could renew the life in his mother, giving her the will to again sow the bonds she had created in her family. An object with such meaning, that her strength could be reawakened from her silent, enclosed soul.
The little boy could almost hear his father as he explained to his young ears, when strength is needed compassion must be found as well. His mother needed this understanding to help become the women she had once been. This object which he sought needed to remind her of the kindness which once surged through her now frozen heart. This same heart at one time could swell large enough to seemingly envelope the world, yet now has allowed itself to become petrified, motionless, losing all connection to the synapses of life. His mother had become a stationary shell lost in the shadows of her darkened memories.
His father’s last words of advice, yet the most important, explained how this object must stand for peace. Without peace and hope, there is nothing to gain, nothing to move onto. His father’s fears echoed in his ears, without peace she may never truly smile from her soul again. The little boy remembered the serenity that once could be seen through his mother’s eyes, before the heavy grains of life sanded everything away. Like so many others, his mother had forgotten this hope, had forgotten the necessity to continue searching for the good in life instead of becoming lost in the bleakness of hate. His father knew the object could return this to her, helping her forgive life, helping faith and dreams to again surge throughout her sorrowful soul.
As the little boy carried this object, wrapped in such an insignificantly small box, he smiled knowing his father entrusted only him with this delicate task. He quietly walked to his mother and gently opened her numb hand hoping his little touch could help pull her back to him. He enclosed the box with her fingers and silently turned away.
Many years have passed since that day, yet she never forgets that moment. Her little boy, though so small at the time, so blissfully unaware of the magnitude of his actions, saved her life. Only her husband could know her needs, her weakness with her strengths, only her husband could teach such a lesson to their young son. She sighs softly as she arrives to her destination accompanied with her now grown son. With his assistance she slowly makes her way across the fresh cut green grass. He stays behind now, giving her the privacy she needs yet the support she yearns for during this still difficult time. He watches his mother gracefully kneel while gently removing the small package from her dark woolen coat. Softly, with delicate aged fingers, she removes the object she has used for her strength over all these years. This small object helped remind her of the compassion she needed when she felt lost and alone, and now has again helped her find the peace she needs today.
Gingerly, he watches as his mother kisses this beloved object with the utmost love, sincerity, and sorrow. She closes her eyes lost in her own private moment, then again bestows one final kiss before carefully draping her husband’s dog tags over his gravestone. She reaches for her son who helps raise her from the ground capturing her in his embrace hoping she can feel the love surge through his very being. They both smile as the breeze dances through the trees skipping among the flowers sensing his father’s love. He knows someday they will see his father again, a man who taught so much to them both even in death, yet now they must continue on loving and hoping knowing he watches over them both always.