Little man

They grow before we even have a chance to notice. Toy chests filled with broken toys, a reminder of who they were. A bag of worn out and outgrown clothes waiting to be thrown out but we can't let them go. The shirt he loved so much, the one with a basketball on the front and his name across the back. You can still see him running through the house wearing it every day if you'd let him. And how many times did you have to take it off him while he slept so you could wash it, only to leave it lying beside him clean and warm?

Trophies filled the shelves above his bed and you remember each and everyone because you were there with him. Every practice, game and award ceremony found you cheering him on as you caught him looking your way with that winning smile he had just for you. Then one day without warning he was a man with things to do and people to see. You held that old shirt of his and cried like you did the first time you held him in your arms promising you would always be there to protect him.

His room is the way he left it when you sent him off to college, and sometimes at night, you swore you heard him in there playing a video game or talking to a friend on the phone. They do grow up before we even have a chance to notice but when they do come home if only for a few days all the loneliness disappears as he tells you about his classes and the girl he met and how he told her about you and knew she would love you almost as much as he did. Your little man was right there again filling your heart with all the love it could ever hold. You did good mom. You did real good.

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