Thirty Years Ago

She had not been expecting a letter. She had given up all rights to her baby thirty years ago, when she signed the adoption papers. She opened the letter quickly, with trembling hands. Her son had found her! He forgave her for not raising him. He wanted to meet her. There was a name, finally, to this baby she had given up.

She called the number in the letter. When she heard her son's voice for the first time, it brought tears to her eyes. "Mom!" he said, "I have been searching for you for so long! I am so glad I found you! I hope you are glad, too. Please, can we meet each other? I have so many questions to ask you, and so much to tell you about who I am!"

He came to visit. He brought the parents who had raised him. They all laughed and cried in their spaghetti.

The mom who had raised her son told her, "All we knew about you was that you were a dancer. Your son is so artistic! It is amazing how much he resembles you. None of our other children can sing or draw."

She was already crying, but the tears came down faster as she looked over all her son's paintings he had brought to show her. Many of them were of dancers. Most of all, she cried when her son showed her a picture of his fiance, and asked her to be in their wedding.

"We are starting a new life together, Mom, and I want you to be part of it. I want you to know your grandkids!"

So she was part of her son's life, and she would have grandkids on her lap in her old age. She saw her features in her son's face. She would see herself in her grandkids' faces. She was so proud of her son's paintings. She was so excited about the future now! What artistic accomplishments might her grandkids make?

She was so glad she hadn't let her anger and shame win, thirty years ago.