This is one of my favorite pictures of my son Kevin. I don’t know what the activity was but he seemed to engage with everyone around him. Comparing things, poking fun at things, or giving someone a hard time, it didn’t matter, he just had to be doing something with someone. I am so grateful he poked his head in the bedroom to tell us good-bye and that he loved us before he headed out to work that morning ten years ago. I like to remember him as someone who marched to the beat of his own drum. He was everyone’s friend. He loved people, and he connected with everyone, no matter how old or young they were. He had a way of putting you at ease. And he seemed to always be plotting something with someone. He is missed, he is loved, he left a hole in our family, but we will be together again.
When we first moved to Manhattan, Kansas we had to rent some places. Sunday afternoon at the dinner table Kevin would put on a magic show. He would learn a few tricks during the week, and then entertain us all with the new tricks. Disappearing utensils and coins going through the tabletop were some of the more memorable moments – especially the look of horror on Lynda’s face when her butter knife disappeared.
He had a ready smile, but always had some mischievous prank about to be sprung on someone. Which brings me back to this picture. It looks like the fellow Kevin is handing something to is a bit wary, don’t you think? Not sure if he should take it or not, and the look on Kevin’s face, ‘why don’t you trust me? Nothing is going to happen’… The moment was captured and it illustrates that side of Kevin so well.
Ten years may have gone by, but your memory is still alive and well. Miss you son.
