dancing with hat

This is my son Matthew. Matthew has Downs Syndrome. At the time that I painted this I was sitting in children's Hospital in Los angeles, late in the evening, sitting on a window seat, listening to the beeping of the monitors which were keeping my son alive. He was being treated for Leukemia( cancer of the blood). I was remembering the day he was dancing in my living room, happy as a lark and naked as the day he was born, except for the hat on his head. No inhibitions about his nakedness, free as could be, twisting and turning and flipping that hat around as if it were the greatest thing ever discovered on the face of the earth. I grabbed my camera to capture the moment. So much joy. And then this, the struggle of this horrible disease. Beeping, no sleep, and the struggle of it all. He's doing fine now. He is singing and dancing naked in the living room again, if he can get away with it!