My Son, My Gift

Robert X. Fogarty has photographed thousands of people, including some of the world’s most famous, as part of his original Dear World project.

Fogarty asks his subjects to write a word or words on their body that are meaningful to them before he snaps his photos.

Andrea Austin had a chance to be photographed by Fogarty during a work conference.

She wrote two words on each arm, “My Son” and “My Gift.”

That’s exactly how Andrea sees her only son, Kevin Austin Jr.

“He is my gift,” she said. “He’s made me very happy. I’m very proud of him. I think he’s very respectful to others. When I see that, it makes me proud.”

And when she doesn’t see it, sometimes she hears about it, although it may not be from Kevin, a top 2018 wide receiver from Florida.

One day, Austin noticed a classmate seemed to be struggling through a difficult time and approached him to chat. It may not have seemed like a huge deal to those on the outside or even to Austin, but both he and his mother would soon find out, when a Thank You card was sent to Austin’s mother from the parents of the classmate.

“I opened the card and thought, ‘Why am I getting a Thank You card? I don’t even know the parent,’” Andrea recalls. “It was a Thank You card that said, ‘My son came home and told me he was having a rough day and Kevin saw he was having a rough day. Kevin spoke to him and made him feel better.’

“He went home and told his parents. Whatever it was, they felt the conversation he had with Kevin had made such an impact on him that day that they felt they had to send a note to me to say, ‘You have raised this amazing son. We thank you that you raised him to notice our son was in trouble and reached out to him.’

“I had tears that day. Kevin didn’t even tell me about it. He just said, ‘Oh, one of the parents left a Thank You card for you.’”

It wasn’t until then that Austin explained the story to his mother.

“He goes, ‘Yeah, I noticed something was wrong and we talked, but I didn’t realize he was going to tell his parents and they were going to send you a card,’” she says.

“Those are the things he does and I don’t know if it’s because he was raised by a mom, but he notices things about people. I think if he can reach out and help somebody, it’s not even a thought that he’s going to do it. He’s going to try to help anyone he sees who needs help.”

Austin will announce his college choice on Friday between Notre Dame, Duke, Miami and Tennessee.

While he’s earned plenty of accolades on the field and in the classroom, neither is the reason his mother wrote those four words on her arms that day.

“More than anything, more than football and his grades, just the fact that I think he’s such a good person and has such a good heart, I’m so proud of him for that.”