On What Would Be Adam's 29th Birthday

Adam Rogers Gillette
b. May 22, 1984
d. August 22, 2000

His was a memorable birth, the only one of four who got his start and welcome to the world within the sheets of the same bed. My head was leaning on his father as I strained to push  out ten-plus weight but when I held him in my arms, I fell in love. Every mother has her moments when she meets
her infant child, still covered in the sticky
stuff of inner care, but he came clean
to the embrace, water breaking as he burst
the bonds of mother's womb. Perhaps because I'd only know him sixteen years, the feeling of initial bond was never severed, never strained with rebel scowls or hurtful words. Ever hot or cold, he was a boy, and boys will say and do such things that break a mother's heart. If he said or did them, though, they've faded into whispers, overshadowed
by the all-pervading glory of his laugh.



(c) Ellen Gillette, 2013