Here is another picture of my mother. She is the redhead on the left. The blon...

Here is another picture of my mother. She is the redhead on the left. The blonde is her best friend, Pat.
I don’t know the names of the boys.
There is no date on the photo.
All I know is that my mother is young, and on the beach in Bay Ridge, Maryland, smiling, squinting into the sun.
She has not met my father yet.
She has not dreamed of my brother, or me.
I keep looking at this photo of who she was before me.
I squint into the bright light of her.
I smile back.