Chris was the first baby I ever knew very well, ever held, ever had much to do with at all and it was a thrill for me to watch him grow. He was such a happy child. And wicked cute. Early on in his life, my husband, Mark, and I lived in Massachusetts, north of Boston. But we usually visited for summers or sometimes on our way to visit our extended families in Virginia.
Most of my earliest memories of Chris were when we were together with my husband, Mark, who had this weird game he made up. He would roughhouse with Chris and Matt, like they’d be sitting on a couch and he would kind of bang on them with the sides of his hands and they would roll over giggling as if it was the best thing ever. They called it chopping vegetables, I think. Not sure how that got started but they always did it when we got together, along with any games they liked to play, and riding around their long block on trikes and little-kid bikes. Lots of fun stuff.
One year, I think my mom had just had a heart attack down in Charlottesville so I ended up driving down 8 hours from Mass all alone, planning on spending the night at Ted and Cathy’s before heading south the next day.
So, I was pretty tired and stressed when I drove up to 703 Bedford Rd to see the entire family, all hanging out in the front yard, probably not to greet me exactly but that’s how it felt. And there was Chris. He saw the car and either they told him it was mine or he recognized it, and he came running towards it, stopping carefully at the sidewalk, visibly holding his excitement in check in his little body, jumping around, laughing, head swinging back and forth, a huge smile on his face, a little energetic bundle of loving joy.
“Aunt Leslie! Aunt Leslie!” I felt so lucky to have Chris in my life. What a welcome after such a hard day. And as I approached him, he had with even more joy in his face, all the joy only a child can express, he again shouted, “Aunt Leslie. Aunt Leslie!” And then his tone changed to pure adulation and quiet awe, enunciating clearly, beyond his years: “Does this mean UN – CLE (Pause for a breath) MAWWWWK is here?”
Gee, I guess I should have learned how to play chopping vegetables!
RIP little man.