At first glance, this looks like a happy family, right? The brothers and sister are all smiling, and it seems natural. But the little boy in the middle with all the tubes is in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). He was born just two days before this photo was taken.
But there’s someone missing. His mother. She died the day before from toxemia. She was 40 years old, and this was her fourth child. We had been married for almost 23 years.
Suddenly, I became a single parent with children ranging from 19 years old to an 11-week premature baby.
He stayed in the NICU and nursery for a month. He came home on our anniversary—I think the doctors planned that.
I didn’t have time to fully grieve. Every day, I made the hour-long trip to the NICU to visit him. Then I’d come home to cook dinner, clean, do laundry, and if I had time, go to work.
The small town of Thibodaux, Louisiana, helped me through. The people there gave me so much love and support. I’m forever grateful to them.
I was so eager for Graham to come home so we could be a family again. He weighed just four pounds, and sometimes I felt like I was crazy thinking I could be both a mother and a father. But I did my best.
Long story short, he made it. He grew stronger and did well. This is his Eagle Scout picture.