This is probably my favorite photo of all time: dad and I sitting on a lawn, by a lake, feeding black swans. There is something so peaceful about it.
This picture was taken in the countryside of Minas Gerais, a state in the Southeast of Brazil. My parents would take us there every year; maybe even a couple times a year. I remember that it was so exciting when they would tell us that we were going to Minas. I always thought it was funny that we were so excited to leave a city that so many people would love to visit (my hometown is Rio de Janeiro) to go to a small town with not much going on. But look at how beautiful those swans are! We don’t see swans in Rio that often.
I love the way my dad is holding me. He was always so protective of us. And isn’t it great that he actually let me feed the birds? What if they bit me? Would they bite a 2.5 year-old? There are swans at the park near my apartment here in New York. They are white ones, though. I’m too scared to get near them; I heard they attach you if you get too close. Maybe if my dad was here I would feel brave enough to feed these yankee swans? Maybe.
I remember those shoes–I used to love them. I had another pair of the same kind that I used to like even more, but in different colors (gray and blue) and bigger size. I wore the blue ones after they became too small for my feet. I didn’t tell my mom, because I was afraid she was going to make me stop wearing them. She finally realized, of course. Isn’t it a shame children’s feet grow so fast and their shoes go to waste?
My dad passed away two years ago. I’m so very grateful to have to picture to look at every now and then. I don’t have too many pictures of us together, but that kind of makes the ones I have of us even more special.
