Lean Wit It

“The photo was taken on the steps of the St. Coleman’s parish church in Pompano Beach, Florida after Sunday mass sometime in 1989.

The little boy leaning on my bits and pieces is my pesky brother, Aldrich, who was about 4 years old at the time.

In his youth, he had a series of mishaps and accidents due to his rambunctious nature:

He fell into our pool without knowing how to swim and managed to get himself to safety;
He fell down two flights of steps inside a cruise ship;
He wrapped the cord for our living room curtains around his neck and proceeded to jump off the sofa, fortunately taking down the whole curtain track assembly with him;
He took the cigarette lighter from inside our car and branded himself on his right cheek, the mark still showing up to today;
And, he fell off the second floor of his school in 3rd grade and landed on some chicken wire, which broke his fall but bloodied himself from all the cuts and scrapes he managed to get.
Anyways, on this perfect Sunday morning, we had just gotten out of church and decided to snap a shot for posterity’s sake…

… just as the person taking the picture counted to three, I felt his tiny hand grasp me in the groin like a vise and I just barely managed to smile and keep a brave front for the moment… and it turned to a grimace in pain right after the shutter clicked.. and I will never forget the wave of pain that engulfed me soon after.

Today, whenever I look at that photo, I not only remember all the hardships my mother and I went through in raising that guy… I remember how he turned what was supposed to be the perfect family photo into THE most awkward in our family history.”

(submitted by Joseph)