His grandparents are making the pilgrimage home, after many years abroad. Their last stop before their ultimate destination will be the shrine of the never aging boy.
They will find no live grandchild here. For that they will have to keep moving.
Would you like to see him? These are all we have. No one else has seen them before. Three photographs. Only one with a flash. Too dead, that one. Don't spend too much time looking at that one.
Would you like to hold him? The copper box fits nicely in the palms of your hands. Don't worry about oily fingerprints, they are easy to clean off.
His grandparents talk about him freely. A gift to us. The best gift. He is real to them without ever having laid eyes upon him. I wonder if that will change once they see just how unreal a dead baby looks in photographs.
I wish they had seen him and held him when he was still in possession of all three dimensions. I think they would have kissed him and rocked him and been good to him in the midst of their grief. How sad for them to have missed his life and death completely.
For them there is only a copper box, three photographs, and an ink print of a foot.
For them there is only their very sad son and his very sad wife.
Inadequate.
Oh Brianna, I hope the visit goes well. From my experience, those folks, the ones who talk freely and understand that our dead children are still significant even though they happen to be dead, they are the ones who will want to look at those photographs and then tell you how beautiful he was.
ReplyDeleteAnd isn't it so very sad, the incredibly small amount of stuff left over from our boys' lives? It breaks my heart to think that those few things are all that is left of him.
They sound like wonderful grandparents for your George.
ReplyDeleteThe few small things I have are utterly, woefully inadequate and a hundred thousand photos would never be adequate.
I hope the visit is full of love.
xxx
sending hugs.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Barbara, they sound like wonderful grandparents.
ReplyDeleteI wish they'd had a chance to meet George too. I'm sure that they would have done all the things that you imagine.
Brianna -- I am reading this almost 11 mos after you wrote it. I saw your comment on Mandy Hitchcock's blog about her beautiful Hudson.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter and her husband lost their baby boy, Rango (yes, that is really his name) at 27 weeks in June. My daughter was able to hold Rango and wrap him in a blanket that I was knitting for him (first thing in my life I had ever knitted). My daughter and her husband were able to have a photographer come to the hospital to take photos of them holding their beautiful little boy. I was able to hold him and give him a kiss. I was so grateful and blessed that I was able to be there with my daughter and her husband and be there for my daughter and her husband. I am sure that George's grandparents were touched in the same way.