(poems go here)Anyone who knows me knows that Derek Jeter is my favorite professional athlete (of course!); that I listen to Lady Ga Ga when I’m driving in my car---loud---and that my camera is my one and only best friend; I take it with me wherever I go.  Anyone who knows me knows that these three items would be on any list I would ever compile of the top ten things that are important to me: Derek Jeter, Lady Ga Ga, and a camera.  The thing not everyone might know is that my number four on my list would be Rose’s eyes.

                Rose is my grandmother.  She has been there to support me my entire life.  She would have done anything for me and I would have done the same, but a couple of years ago she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.  That’s when our relationship changed forever.  Because she has memory loss, she can’t always recall what she has said to you before, but she always touches you with her eyes.  Her eyes, which once watched her children grow up, develop relationships, and get married, now have no recollection of who her children are.  The wrinkles around them, however, bear witness to the stress and pain she was put through after years of hard work.  And when they look into your soul, as they always seem to do, even from the depths of her mental fog, you feel the dignity of a life well lived that no disease can erase.

                Those eyes, that Da Vinci alone could do justice to, which I never get tired of photographing; eyes that are stronger than any homerun hitter, that move to a mysterious music unknown to any pop star.  Derek Jeter has moved people with his ability to hit homeruns, Lady Ga Ga can always lift my spirits when I’m having a hard day, and my camera will always be there to capture anything at any given moment.  My grandmother, though, will not always be here to remember the way she has influenced my life.  Sometimes it takes getting to your number four, before you realize that it’s actually the top of your list.