HANDS OF LOVE

December 2021. I received a text message with the picture of my friend Vitalina’s hand gently holding her ailing father’s hand. Sam, age 90, is in the hospital fighting an infection. His beloved daughter wrote: “His hand is still strong. We pray every day together.” 

November 2021. Hours before our son moved with his family to Cleveland in November, I snapped a picture while sitting with our grandson. It’s like the one I took with our granddaughter Solly when she was nine months old, see Hands Down the Best, posted on January 28, 2020, at sharonmarkcohen.com.

What is it about hands that show such affection? They can be burly, like Sam’s at 90, holding onto his daughter Vitalina’s hand as she comforts him in the hospital. Or tender and pristine as our grandson Dizzy’s or our granddaughter Solly’s reaching for my well-worn hands. 

While Sam’s been working with lawns and trees throughout his long years, including ours for the past 22 years, Dizzy and Solly just learned to wave and blow kisses with their precious baby hands. 

Old, young, wrinkled, unworn, chapped, smooth, any way you look at it, touching hands adds silent warmth and love that sometimes transcends words. These three photographs “talk” a lot about life.