Picture#1 May 3, 1994

Zachary less than 12 hours old.

My Mom wrote that on the back of the picture, and that is all I really know about this event.

This picture was taken when my brother was born. My Mom is sitting on the hospital bed, and my sister and I are standing beside her. My Mom looks young and beautiful. My sister is being cute and cuddling my brother, who is wrapped in a green striped blanket. I smile largely. My eyes are folded in by my cheeks and my smile is very lopsided. I cannot really remember this time of my life. One thing I remember is that I always wanted to hold my brother.

Our local hospital still has the same vinyl covered chairs. I sat in them ten years later in October on my birthday when my Mom lay, silent and immobile, in a hospital bed. Instead of the jubilant woman celebrating the birth of her son my Mom lay as a rag doll, limp unmoving, and unseeing.