Five Minute Friday: Sailor Boys

Five Minute Friday is a writing adventure that I learned about on Gypsy Mama’s website. We are to write for 5 minutes, without editing, without worrying, just writing. This week’s theme is: Hard Love.
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From the time I was a little girl, I've had a fascination with the Navy and sailors, more specifically the uniform. All but two of my uncles were sailors. I love the uniforms, crisp, clean, just beautiful. It is a classic childrenswear look that I knew I would someday use for my own children.

"Someday" came for the first time on 5 June 1986. A squawling baby boy was brought into the world amidst a roomful of student nurses and an obstetrician that wasn't so sure that I would be able to birth an elephant unassisted.

Ok, so you weren't really an elephant, but at 8 lbs 8 ounces, you were more than they felt my small frame could handle. They had the baby plunger handy and the OR ready in case a c-section was indeed necessary.

But, with grandma's words of wisdom in my mind and heart, I brought you into this world without that sort of intervention. I huffed and I puffed and my world blew in.

Who knew then, in my new mommy world of My Buddy, strained peas, and sailor suits, that I would blink and you would be 17 years old and standing in the recruiter's office? If I had known all that would come, I would have just left those sailor suits of my youth in my distant memories.

You took it on, that suit, that life, and the Navy took you from me. As your sub went down, my heart went lower and I wailed to your father "give me back my baby that you've taken from me!"

He said that the time had come for me to let you go.

How? All of my life I planned for you and now I had to let you go?

At that point, I could have let him go, too.
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