Work Text:
Berkley August 2024
Henry Taylor moved into his dorm at USC-Berkley. He entered his dorm with boxes he had yet to unpack.
He started to unpack and he pulled out a photo of him and his mother's Shauna and Jackie on a swing he took a year ago. He smiled sadly at the photo and kissed it.
While he was setting up his dorm he saw an envelope on the floor.
He picked it up and it read DO NOT OPEN UNTIL 20 YEARS OLD
Henry opened the envelope, and it was a letter his mother wrote to him on his first birthday he sat down on a chair and began to read it.
"Dear Henry, if you are reading this year you must be an adult by now probably 20 or something like that. I’m writing you this letter on your first birthday well typing it on my laptop to print out later on but still. My name is Shauna Shipman your mommy and Jackie Taylor is your Jax.
You were born in Wiskayok, New Jersey on an early fall morning in September to me only four hours of labor waking me up at 2:30 AM to make your entrance though you weren’t supposed to come until the first week of October.
The first moment I saw you in my arms I discovered what love truly is with your Jax cheering me on during labor. I looked into your little face and I saw my own and a little of Jax too. Jackie and I were excited but very nervous about being moms like thoughts raced through our heads while we were preparing and everything for you to come.
The first year of your life had lots of memories that Jackie and I will cherish forever but you won’t remember until you read this letter.
Our first outing we went to the Wiskayok Spook Fest for Halloween after you were born, we dressed you up in a cute flannel shirt and going to the pumpkin patch and getting your first pumpkin.
But then afterwards as we were leaving, and I was holding you in my arms. You puked on me. That was me and Jackie’s welcome to parenthood moment. Jackie laughed hysterically but it wasn’t THAT funny to me since you got some of it on my hair and shirt.
By the way the stains you left on my shirt still haven’t come out and probably never will but that’s ok.
I want to tell you a thing about your Jax and me,
Nearly nine years ago we had a near miss from a plane that we were supposed to get on. We had been soccer players on the Wiskayok High Yellowjackets, and we were supposed to travel to Seattle for a championship game.
Though things we never quite understood we never got on the plane and that was when we met Sid Strickland your uncle and godfather.
We learned our teammates and friends were killed when the plane crashed in the Canadian wilderness. It was our near miss that gave me and Jax a second chance at life and we learned something very important that day.
You have got to live your life. Have fun, be yourself, screw up once in a while and learn from things and to live everyday if it was your last and to cherish family.
I fell in love with Jax, and we married and then we made the best decision of our lives when we created you via a sperm donor.
Thank you, Henry Shipman Taylor, for choosing me and Jackie to be your moms.
We learned about love when they placed you in my arms for the first time and we fell in love with you.
one thing to say Someday you Henry Shipman Taylor in this life your about to lead will encounter things that can challenge you and things that will test your limits and along the way you will have milestones from your first steps, first word, when you lose your first tooth, get your first crush and first heartbreak, first friend and first of many things.
But no matter what happens along the way, you will always be our baby even when you grow up. I know this sounds crazy but Jax and I no matter what you decide to do like start a rock collection, want to be a rock star or whatever.
We will love and support you through and through. if you’re out there battling monsters and goblins or if you’re just doing whatever, me and Jackie Taylor…. Your jax will wait for you at Wiskayok and so will Uncle Sid.
And one more thing that we told you when you were born that hopefully you’ll remember.
You are so loved….. Smooches.
Shauna Shipman (mommy) and Jackie Taylor (Jax) Henry saw a picture of his moms Shauna and Jackie holding him as a baby on a tree swing smiling at the camera.
He smiled at the photo with a tear in his eye. He put the photo of his moms at his age with him as a baby next to his photo he had taken of Shauna and Jackie on the same swing years later smiling at each other.