Mom's Graduation Smile

I love, love, love this photo of my mom. There is something so very "Mary Tyler Moore" about it. She looks happy, carefree, and a bit mischievous, which is a side of my mom you very rarely got to see. I am pretty sure this was taken at my mom's high school graduation. She graduated from Kubasaki High School in Okinawa. Afterwards, she was to head back to the states to attend college in Massachusetts. What a brave leap of courage she took, leaving her family and friends to start a totally new chapter in her life. What she didn't know at the time this picture was taken was that she would spend only one year in Massachusetts, then transfer to the University of Oklahoma where she would then meet my dad. And as they say......the rest is history. What I love about this photo is that she didn't know her future. She couldn't see my dad, me, a career, grandchildren, and a life full of love. She couldn't see cancer and heart disease and physical suffering. She just smiled at the future. Because she knew it was in God's hands.