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During Tuesday's inauguration of Barack Obama, Todd Baldwin Jr. saw his grandfather almost fall out of his chair.

"Will you look at this picture!'' exclaimed the Rev. Robert Williams Jr.

There it was on page 12, The Photograph. It already had appeared in Jet, two issues of Essence, newspapers, various Web sites and even a billboard in Chicago.

And now, it appeared in Obama's official inauguration program: The Photograph, the picture of Todd Jr., shaking Obama's hand during his March 26, 2008, campaign stop in Greensboro.

Todd's aunt bought the program from a street vendor during her visit last weekend to Washington. The cost: $10. Now, that 25-page book is priceless. At least for the Baldwin family.

Todd's encounter with Obama was, maybe, two seconds at Greensboro's War Memorial Auditorium. But those two seconds, frozen forever, thanks to an AP photographer, have secured a big-time memory for this fifth-grader from Greensboro's Erwin Montessori.

And a big-time prediction. At least for his parents.

"We think it's predestined,'' says Rolanda Baldwin, Todd's mother. "That picture keeps showing up again and again and again. One day, their paths will cross again.''

Contact Jeri Rowe at 373-7374 or jeri.rowe@news-record.com