While they were busy going to their fashion shows and their bridge parties, she was home with him.

They'd play in the backyard together, go on bike rides, have long talks. She was the best football player on the whole block. At least that was what the other guys said. They really thought she was special. You know, they wished their moms were more like that.

Then one day Jamey was called home from school. There was a big white ambulance in the driveway. When Jamey walked in the front door his dad was talking to the doctor, and Jamey was scared.

They said he could only talk to his mom for a minute, and when he tiptoed into the bedroom and saw her lying on the bed she smiled and whispered, "Hi, Big J." That's what she always called him even though he wasn't very big. She said he always had a big heart.

She said, "Jamey, I'm going away and I won't be coming back. I'm dying."

Big tears came into Jamey's eyes and he said, "Mom, you just can't die."

And she said, "It's okay Babe, there's no regrets. I've been with you more in eleven years than most moms are with their boys in their whole lifetime."

He said, "I know mom, but you can't die, you can't."

And she said, "Jamey, there's a secret, and I never want you to forget it. --Families are forever, and even though you won't see me, I'll still be there watching over you, and waiting for you."

And he said, "But Mom, if I can't see you, well then, how will I know you're there?"

And she thought a minute and then she smiled and answered, "I'll build you a rainbow way up high above, send down a sunbeam plumb full of love, sprinkle down raindrops, teardrops of joy. I'll be as happy as springtime watching over my boy."

She kissed him, closed her eyes, and she was gone. As Jamey and his dad stood in the driveway watching the ambulance drive away, his dad broke down and started to cry. And they hugged each other real tight and Jamey felt his teardrop's on his own cheeks and cried too. And then he remembered the secret--and he looked up and sure enough, there it was, right over their house--a big rainbow, just like she said!

And he said, "Dad, dad, it's all right, Families are forever!!"

~~ by R. Scott Strong