What Really Matters

"The _________ Scholarship is awarded to three students. The students selected for this award have exhibited the following traits; integrity, loyalty to friends, responsibility, industriousness, competitive involvement in school activities, sincerity and honesty. This year's recipients will receive a scholarship which will be paid to the university of their choice. This year's recipients are:
1. __________
2. __________
3. My younger son!"

I was surprised at the Senior Honors Assembly when my son received this award. I had attended the function, thinking he was going to receive a plaque for community involvement. It turns out that will be sent to him. And as it turns out, this award is far, far better because it involves a substantial monetary amount that will alleviate my freaking out over the cost of college textbooks for both Freshman year semesters and then some!

In a way, this award is a fitting symbol of our journey up to this point. It really signifies what has been most important to me in raising my sons on my own. Not that these traits wouldn't have been important had my husband remained alive. It is that since his death, I have realized how much more of value these traits are.

When I related these traits to someone who knows my son, he nodded and agreed that they are an accurate description of him.

Integrity
Loyalty
Responsibility
Industriousness
Involvement
Sincerity
Honesty

To know that my son, as well as my eldest, have learned and incorporated these traits into their beliefs and actions makes me truly proud. Because these are traits that I have tried to live my life by. Widowhood has been a great challenge for me. I joke that I have not been a particularly successful widow. But joking aside, to reach this point with the knowledge that despite all the hardships and difficulties, there is some success, brings a measure of comfort.