As they came closer, C. shrieked, “You’ll never guess what we brought!!!” and before he blurted out the secret, my mom revealed what she had.

In a cardboard box, surrounded by a fluff of lamb’s wool was a baby hummingbird. My dad found him on their sidewalk. Needless to say, my children were jumping up and down with happiness, fighting to be the first one to touch the fairy. The hummingbird was very young; he fluttered his tiny wings, trying to take flight. He would just go back to the box, exhausted with exertion. We all took turns to hold him and feed him. Gorgeous ran to our front yard and came back with a handful of flowers from our butterfly bush. I tried to explain to him that the little bird wouldn’t even try to feed, but I was wrong. I was shocked to see a long, needle-thin, black tongue coming out to drink from the flower. Gorgeous was beaming with pride. My mom prepared sugar water, and one by one we wet our finger on it and let the baby hummingbird drink it.

To my surprise and delight, the baby lived several days, I think about 2 more weeks. My mom put him outside in the little box, and the mother hummingbird would come feed him; however, one day she just stopped coming. That only Sunday Jeff was home, my mom brought the fairy for Jeff to see him. We were watching the Olympics closing ceremony, and reluctantly Jeff raised from the couch to come see the hummingbird for himself. In spite of himself, I saw a glimpse of the little boy Jeff had been, peaking through his eyes, showing his delight in touching such a beautiful, innocent, magical being.

The hummingbird’s soul flew to Heaven on a beautiful Summer night. He left a little bit of his magic with us.