“Oh Mom, he looks like you! Your great-grandson has your smile.”

I couldn’t wait to tell Mom that baby Cameron had the same sweet smile as the one in her baby picture. I knew that portrait well. It hung in her parents’ living room for decades.

It now hung in Mom and Dad’s bedroom.

Today, I came across this poem Mom wrote in 1996. She was just a year younger than I am now.

‘The Good Child’

She is the constant star of satisfaction in my sleep
awake I see the good child on my wall
smiling delighted in the baby portrait
six decades later I still feel her joy
no matter where my road has run to

soiled or hungry tired cold
in dreams she waits until I’m ready
I’m grownup there and busy by
the little one who is myself
all that I started out to be

she salvages me when I’m asleep
and waits again for me when I’m awake

~ joan vayo ~ August 29, 1996

Here’s Mom, the good child of 1930 with another good child, this one from 2012:

Mom’s baby portrait now hangs in our study, to the left of my computer, overlooking the telling of stories and smiling on the sharing of her poems.

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“The Good Child”  © 1996 Joan Cassidy. All rights reserved.

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