Sunsets & Rainbows

The past year has been the hardest of my life. After a difficult year professionally, on top of the struggles everyone has faced with the Coronavirus, my mother passed away unexpectedly in her sleep on April 28th, 2020. She was my best friend for so many years. She taught me what it feels like to be loved unconditionally. It was a cruel lesson in life that every moment is prescious. No matter how honest, generous, or kind, the life that so many take for granted, can be over in an instant. She was a (relatively) healthy 58 year old woman. Always giving everything she had to those around her. The reason I am where I am today is because of the countless sacrifices she made to make my dreams come true. And even with all of the good she’s done, she just fell asleep and never woke up.

The photo I’ve selected to enter is of myself standing at the peak of Roque de Los Muchachos looking off into the sunset. Roque is the highest point on La Palma of the Canary Islands in Spain, which is where I live with my wife. This photo is the one that finally convinced my mother to plan a trip and leave the United States for the first time to come to visit me. We were planning her trip for this summer, which now will never happen. It may be hard to believe, but at the very moment this picture was being taken, I was thinking about how much she would love to be there with me. She was always in love with everything nature, especially sunsets and rainbows. I will always remember how after a rainstorm, she would almost always immediately go outside to the street and walk around looking at the sky searching for a rainbow. Also as a child, she would bring me to the train yard in our hometown of North Haven, Connecticut to eat hotdogs and watch the sunset while we sat on the hood of her Ford Taurus. In this photo, I was thinking about the look she would’ve had on her face as she was taking it all in. Who knows if I would’ve been quick enough to think to bring up the hotdogs in the train yard while her and I sat on that mountain, but sitting here now, I can literally picture the way she would’ve look at me with a smile and a tear in her eye if I had. She would probably tell me that I’ll always be that little boy to her. I can picture the face she would make as she was trying to process the beauty of the world I was able to show her. She worked so hard to make my dreams a reality, and I’m finally in a position where I could help do the same for her. But unfortunately, now I won’t have the chance.

Life is precious, but unfairly short. It can be altered forever or ended in the blink of an eye. As beautiful as life is, it can be unforgiving. After being under strict quarantine in Spain for almost 2 months, then learning of my mother’s passing and having to travel from to the United States in the middle of a pandemic, I’ve learned a lot about the beauty of simply being outside. Being able to feel the sun’s warmth and breathe some fresh air. Two of the simplest things we take for granted every single day. Two things my mother loved about life.

Winning this contest would give me the satisfaction of knowing this photo and it’s story means something to somebody besides myself. It would also let others know how wonderful of a person my mother was.

Thank you for your consideration.

Billy McDonald

~In loving memory of Margaret Claire McDonald 9/8/1962 - 4/28/2020~