Joey's Mother's Day Gift to Me

Joey sent me this card on Mother's Day a few years ago. I just found it a few days ago.  It flooded me with warmth and love and made me smile all over again at this now-precious memory. I love his sense of humor. Joey was always teasing me and poking holes in any of my varied neuroses that he thought worthy.

He took this picture when we were attending a fundraiser for the Crisis Pregnancy Center, an organization of which I had been a founder and director when he was growing up. Jim Caviezel, the actor most noted for playing Jesus in the film The Passion of the Christ, was our honored speaker at this event. He is standing to the left of my shoulder (not to be confused with the priest who is standing behind me).

I have an unabashed admiration for Jim Caviezel-- mostly due to his upright character and his bold Christian witness in Hollywood.  Joey loved to tease me about that too--Mama's Crush, he called it.  (I hope it isn't sacrilegious to also note how very handsome Jim Caviezel is!) In this shot, I was sidling up to Jim just for the purpose of stealing a picture with him. I was a groupie, but the shy kind. So rather than talking to him, since I knew I would just stammer, stare and possibly drool, I simply moved close enough for Joey to get this shot!

Months went by and I forgot all about it. The picture showed up on Mother's Day attached to a gift subscription to Dwell magazine. Architecture and housing alternatives were areas of common interest for Joey and I;  hence, this thoughtful gift. I think he wished he had given more, as he refers to himself as an "economad" and the gift subscription as being "humble". I, of course, never felt that way. Like any mother, I loved the thought and care that went into it. I loved it then and love it now. Love every little thing about it.

(Tears, waves of longing, grief pangs, sniff, sniff.) I love you, beautiful son, and miss you so.

Happy Mother's Day to me.