New Writer of Note

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Mi Hijo Menor By Ms. S.W. Haggerty.

When I was invited by INBEAT Life Journal to write a piece on Relationship Dynamics, I immediately knew that I would write a piece that encompass the relationship between my youngest son and me. It is a relationship that represents peace, strength, and unconditional love in the utmost poetic form.

Last year my son graduated from high school and left home all in the same month.  He was eighteen and ready to launch his life in an age appropriate way; subsidized by yours truly at a college in California.  Although I knew this day would come, to him California was home, the event was joyous, exciting and filled with many emotions.

Like most parents, when my son (who I fondly refer to as “The Kid”) was born I imagined what he would be like when he grew up.  What I didn’t imagine was what I would be like when he did.  I can still recall creeping into his room at night when he was a baby and watching him sleep.  He always had one chubby arm across his chest propping the other at the elbow as it lay next to his head making him look as though he were deep in thought.

I remember the day my son and I were playing on the grass at the Children’s Playground in Golden Gate Park, when a gentleman walking by stopped and said, “Enjoy him while you can. The time goes all too fast.” I then spoke these ignorant words to him. “I know.”  Can you believe my ignorance and arrogance? Believe it. I was there. I truly knew nothing about how quickly the time would pass.  One day I was celebrating the birth of my son, then in no time at all he walking, talking, go off to school, and some fifteen years later had acquired his driver’s license and skillfully seduced my car away from me.

When my son was growing up, I always appreciated what made him tick, and I never asked him to be someone other than who he was, and of course more of that unfolded along the way through his high school years.  I guess in a lot of ways I was fortunate because he was never a rebellious teenager, or got into any major trouble.  He did get defiant and mouthy for a while, actually it was more like a quick minute (smile), but I didn’t take it personally, for I knew that he was getting older and just trying to assert himself.  It was never anything drastic, girls, chores, house rules; you know all the stuff that most parents go through.  As my son got older the more things changed, and instead of me protecting him, he began looking out for me.  This is when I realized that I must have done something right.

Today my son and I share an unbreakable bond, so strong that we know what’s happening in one another’s lives long before we communicate the facts with each other aloud. I recently discovered an affectionate, tender, hand written note that said, “Mom, do you think you could wash my hair when you get home from work?”  I laughed as I recalled finding that note stuck on the refrigerator door in 2007; my son was sixteen at the time.

I can only imagine how the beat of the world will be bouncing by the time my son has his own son.  However I do know that by being the best mother I can be, I am shaping a fraction of our collective future; as I teach my son, so I teach my grandson.

I will lower the curtain here.  Until next time…