When I looked into her tiny face, I was amazed at the 
resemblance. She looked just like a miniature version 
of Aunt Mazie. My heart melted and I wanted to gather 
her up in my arms and smother that little face with kisses. 
Stubborn and persistent that no one would enter her little 
world without her permission, Miss Liberty kept me at bay 
and was determined she would have nothing to do with 
me.. I might be a relative of some sort, but, to her, I was 
a total stranger. 
I could not take my eyes off of her the entire day….
She spent several intense minutes watching a giant 
“daddy long-legs” carry a potato chip across the yard. 
When the creature got close to the lawn chair where I 
was sitting, I reached down and picked it up and then with 
a great show of embellished drama I pretended to put it in 
my mouth and swallow it. I watched her face, looking for 
an expression of amazement…But instead she gazed at 
me with pure envy and licked her lips!   
She spent the entire day going from one adventure to 
another. Her mother warned her to stay out of the water. 
Her grandmother told her to stay out of the woods. Her 
grandfather scolded her because she paid no attention to 
the warnings but with a twist of her tiny head and twirl of 
her hair she went on her way. 
Later that afternoon, she had a stick in her hand and was 
drawing pictures in the dirt when suddenly the clouds 
disappeared. She looked up at the sky and this time I 
watched in pure envy as she gave her smile to the sun…
She held her arms out to the clouds that passed and got 
tickled at a spider that smiled back at her…She pressed a 
leaf to the side of her face and hummed a soft, sweet song 
as she counted the toes on a grasshopper…She supervised 
the work of an ant and shooed a butterfly away from her 
nose…..But Liberty kept her distance with me…
When the day ended I walked to the car with her family. 
She held her mommy’s hand and I could see that she was 
ready for a long, long nap.  The adventure was over for some 
of us but not for Liberty…Hers would continue in her dreams..
I was just about to step away so that her mother could 
pick her up and fastened her in the car seat when suddenly 
I felt a small hand pulling at my leg. I looked down and Liberty 
smiled up at me. I saw Aunt Maize’s eyes and I had to blink 
I was so take back by the sweet, precious resemblance. 

“Hey, Junior…” Liberty said, as she reached out to hug me….

“I love you….”

I could hear Aunt Mazie laughing in the distance…