The Girl With the Balloons

It was a beautiful day at the beach today, warm, sunny, calm waves for swimming and pleasant for napping. As I awake from my naps at the beach, I also take a look at the ocean, the sky and the people around me. Upon awaking from one of my naps today a girl caught my eye. She was holding a young baby, two balloons and a cell phone. She seemed out of place. I watched her. She wasn't dressed for the beach and what was it with the balloons. I tried to guess but soon laid my head back down and closed my eyes, until I heard a voice. It was the balloon girl.  She wanted to know if I would take her pictures with the balloons.  There was a yellow and pink balloon on strings entwined in her fingers. I thought at first  they most be for the enjoyment of the baby on her hip, but she didn't even mention him when she asked for the photo to be taken. At one point, she even said it was OK if he wasn't in the photo. I really thought that was strange.  After I took the first photo, I asked her if she minded if I took a couple of more photos just to make sure that that at least one print was what she wanted. She said that would be fine. I took her phone to her so she could she if the photos were appropriate.  Words flooded with emotion started to flow from her. She said that the balloons were for a friend in Georgia that had just lost her twins at 26 weeks. The doctors weren't sure why but the twins had stopped growing and thriving. They were girls. A group of friends and family were having a memorial balloon launch in Georgia today and she couldn't be there so she had come to the beach at Ormond to release her balloons with her 6 month old son. I told her I was sorry and that I was a twin. I told her that my baby boy was 24 years old. She asked me if I could remember when he was 6 months old.  I assured her that I could and that time would fly by quickly. She wanted the photo to send to her friend in Georgia. She wanted her to know how much she cared about her during her loss and sorrow. We exchanged a few more words and she walked a few feet a way and put her head down. I watched her look up to the sky and slowly release the pink and yellow balloon. I watched the balloons float slowly skyward and be picked up by the sea breeze. I looked at her as she kissed her son's head and then reached into the water and anointed her son's head with the water. It was as if she were baptizing him with the life giving sea water to protect him from the sun and any other dangers that may come his way. I turned and begin to watch the balloons accession up toward the white, fluffy clouds and continued to watch until they become a glint of silver in the sky, reflecting the afternoon sun. The balloons disappeared into the heavens. I turned to look for the girl and her son. They were gone too.  For some reason this brief exchange gave me hope after the past two weeks.  It gave me hope that there are still good mothers and mothers who embrace others and encircle them with love when they loose a child.  There is still good in the world and some days it walks right up to you when you least expect it.