Monday, January 11, 2010

Unmasked






We were sitting next to him on the wooden pews. His face was hardened, almost unapproachable. He had his hands crossed in his lap while we quietly chatted with him... After some mumbled small talk, he bluntly said “ I have 26 brothers and sisters".. we were taken a little off guard. We just sat there waiting for him to continue; we had never even heard of anything like that before. “Yeah, my dad’s like that. I don’t know half of them. And it‘s not okay.”

Will was his name. Past the hard exterior, Will had a huge heart who loved his mama. He was a lover and a giver. He had an incredible faith that stood strong even through everything that had happened to him. He was good to his women and he knew "how to treat em right." He was very smart and had big dreams. He planned to break away from the mistakes of his family and move forward on his own.

Will didn’t try to impress us with a grand knowledge of all things pop culture or the latest trends.
He was just----

there… himself…unmasked.

6 comments:

  1. i LOVED this!!! i need to read more.

    btw - a colleague of mine has 13 sisters and 10 brothers. Not quite 26, but imagine havign so many siblings!!!

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  2. I can get over the thought of being pregnant for 26 years or more. Yuck!!

    I love the cheeky photo to go with the story it's fabulous. I posted my award too.

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  3. oh how I love stories like this....and I love "unmasked"

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  4. What a great story. What an inspirational guy. Thanks for sharing this story, I really enjoyed it - and I just love those little angel faces.

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  5. Great story, I love the photo too. Most children are naturally unmasked.

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  6. i read this back when you first posted it and wanted to comment, but i didn't. i was just taken by this story, proud of you for seeing this man and telling his story. what if we all were just unmasked?

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Hey guys. Please leave a comment- I want to learn more about the interesting and wonderful people who happen to stop by and see my work. I would love to hear from you!

-suzyQ