For Thanksgiving this year, our family will unite like we do every year. Our two boys will visit with their families, but Donny will not be with us. Donny, the sweet young boy we adopted at the age of nine, was killed in Iraq. He would have been 21 years old.
Tears fill my eyes when I remember his handsome face; his strong, healthy body the day he left to join the Army. We were so proud of him. I can still hear his voice, “I love you mom. You’re the best thing that happened in my life and I’ll always be grateful for all the love you gave me.”
My Donny was such a good boy. I look down at the sidewalk and see a large hedge blocking the driveway. That hedge needs to be trimmed. I slowly cut its branches and see writing on the cement. It reads: “Donny was here.”
Tears start to flow and I can’t stop them. Donny must have written them while the cement was still wet. The family gathers around the writing; we hold hands to pray: “Thank you Lord, for making Donny a part of our family, even for a brief time.”
Mary Vela is from San Antonio, TX. A published author, she is currently working on a series of children's stories and two lengthy manuscripts. Her plans also include writing a Romance novel. “Lucky’s Lick” and “The Value of a Seed” are recent winning entries on Children Come First.
© 2008 Mary Vela. Original for CCF. (Vela grants CCF first electronic rights for one month; CCF may archive the material indefinitely and include it in an eBook anthology).
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