Sometimes the last day of your holiday is the sweetest and filled with the most magic.

We took a stroll by the Mississippi River as the sun rose one last time over New Orleans for us. We crossed railroad and streetcar tracks, walked up steps and above us was Saint Louis Cathedral in the distance.

That’s where I saw the defiant little boy who had climbed up on an old 18th century cannon facing the river with the cathedral behind him. I snapped his image then, before a mother’s arms could reach for him or a fathers hands encircle him and pull him down. In that split second moment, he was a soldier facing an unknown invader. He was the only thing between safety and chaos.