Lamarr's Story
The story I want to tell you is true. The reason I know is that it happened to me...
I want you to picture with me, if you will, a little boy kneeling beside a bed in prayer. "Dear God, why is my mommy always calling me by someone else's name? You see... My name is Kevin, but she's always calling me Lamarr."
Ever since I can remember, she'd sometimes look at me in a certain way, not that I did anything wrong or anything like that, but at times, she would look at me in a loving way, speak out his name, and would softly start to cry. She has a picture on top of the piano of someone with a funny looking hat on that I didn't even know. I asked about the picture one time, but my mom just turned away and said someday, when I got older, she would tell me.
Just after I turned seven, she took the picture off of the piano, sat down and sat me on her lap. Then she slowly started
to tell me the story. "You see, son, this is picture of a very special person", and she started to cry. Fighting to hold back the tears, she went on. "When you were a very little boy, he went off to fight in a foreign country. Only about three weeks passed, and on Easter Sunday, we received word that he would be coming back home, but that this time he would be
living with God. Yes, son, he had been killed. But as days went by, and you grew older, at times, some of the things you would do or just the way you would make a face, reminded me so very much of him and some of the things that he did as a little boy. You see, son, you might say that you're the image of him and that's why I often called you by his name. It was
as if there was still a part of him alive and living in you. Son, I could never gain enough courage to sit down and tell you the whole story, but now it's time you knew the story and the secrets of your older brother... Lamarr."
- Ray Smith -
