Their red stone cottage was nestled within the Beggs town proper, not too far from a water tower that, from our angle, read: EGGS. I noticed ivy gracing the home’s outside walls as I stood on the porch and knocked, only waiting a moment before Jill answered the door.
It was Mother’s Day, a mid-Sunday morning, and as I spoke with her about our project asking for a conversation and a photo I was struck by the inner calm her voice offered in response. The sunlight lit her face and enhanced her high cheekbones, freckles and short red, curly hair. Many are thrown off by our requests, but not Jill.
“Well, we’re headed to my mother’s house, but I have maybe five minutes?” I knew we couldn’t set up and close back down again in five minutes, much less speak meaningfully with someone in that time frame. So, I politely declined.
Back at the car, I relayed the details to Rachel and she said, “Why don’t we just pose the opportunity to give us her ‘best five minutes’? This is going to happen more than once, so we could try it.” I agreed and ran back to knock a second time.
Call it what you will – Providence, serendipity, or chance…but Jill had a story to tell on Mother’s Day. And, she did it in only eight minutes, on her porch, with her husband Davíd at her side, and her eleven-week old son Noah on her lap.
And, we cried.
Thank you, sweet family in Beggs, for your Mother’s Day post script contribution to Every Point on the Map.
