During these difficult times I think everyone is looking for a feel-good story. That’s why during this Easter season, and while the prison and everyone else is on a Covid-19 lock down, I was thinking about a story my mother had told me many years ago. It was a love story about her parents, my Grandma and Grandpa. Growing up I was not very close with my maternal grandparents, but I always knew they loved me. And I loved them.

One day, back in 2002, during a visit with my mother in the prison’s visiting center, my mother and I were talking about some family history. At that time I had been locked away from my family for 6 years and was still desperately trying to hold on to a connection to home and my life prior to incarceration. I told my mother that as a child I remembered seeing some old black and white family photographs of my grandparents. I described the photos to my mother and she told me she would look for them to send to me. This is what mom sent me:

My Grandpa died on my daughter Amber’s birthday in 2007 and Grandma passed in 2008 after 61 years of marriage. I was not able to be with my family to morn their passing, but I felt the loss nonetheless. Not getting to know them better will always be one of my life’s regrets. I love and miss them.

Grandma and Grandpa’s wedding anniversary is next month in May but, I think I will always consider Easter as their special day. After all, for me Easter has always signified spring, new life, and new hope. So this Easter I will lovingly remember Grandma and Grandpa and their love story. It will make me smile. I hope it makes you smile, too.

Happy Easter to all. Please be safe.

One Day Closer…