Your fifth birthday party
when our bonehead neighbor
blew out your candles and
made you cry…
but some cake and ice cream sure helped
to make a great picture, Sweetheart.
Eight years after that you opened your
giant birthday present and
saw Shelby for the first time,
bow around her neck,
looking up at you for answers.
What a great reason to cry again, Beautiful.
Five years later as you
opened that jewelry box
but found a set of keys instead.
Screaming out the front door,
jumping around the used car that
“got you through college”
sure made for a great shot, Baby Girl.
Graduating three times to become
our daughter “The Doctor”,
your professor hooding and hugging you,
then opening the white coat we bought
for “Dr. Amazing”,
I smiled for a month, Darling.
Holding your first-born,
your little girl, still in your hospital bed.
You were so spent but you
wanted that four-generation picture with Grammy.
You made family history and future
in a single moment, and you’re our Hero.
I’m getting older, but
you’re taking good care of us now.
You were the adventure of a lifetime.
We always had the perfect light,
the right time, and amazing depth.
Look at me one more time, and Baby…
“Say cheese!”
[This is the First Place Winner from our Spring 2024 Poetry Contest.]