Mother's Day & Prized Possessions

I know it's sappy, but hey, I started this entry months ago, actually during Hurricane Katrina, and I tucked it away for Mother's Day. If I don't post it now, I'll have to wait another year.

Have you ever imagined, which material items you'd most want to rescue from your house, in case of total destruction? I grew up and currently live in the midwest. What could take my home? A tornado. Fire. What would I want to rush back in for, given, of course, that we are all safe? I wonder every time I see or hear a story of people's loss on television. My answer, to myself, is always unwaivering and immediate: The Coin Purse.

My son found that coin purse in a parking lot when he was 5 years old. No I.D., no cash, just a wet little coin purse in the middle of the Osco parking lot. What a cute little weathered thing it was; "Can I have it?" I asked him.

No. He liked it, he found it, it was his. He found a place for it in his bedroom, and there it stayed, for months.

Mother's Day rolled around, our first "alone" after his father and I split. We did the usual Mother's Day things, took flowers to Grandma, and had lunch with her and Grandpa, then came home and made cookies, a nice little day together. Dinner, and bath and bedtime, and Brian came padding out in his little pajamas. His dad was out of town, he said, and could not take him shopping for a gift for me (it was true). Since he had nothing to give, he wanted me to have the coin purse, because he remembered I like it.

For all of my footstomping and declarations that I hate "sap," the coin purse crumbled me then, and still does. It sits now in my curio cabinet, and still represents to me everything I ever tried to instill in my child—love, friendship, laughter, thoughtfulness, the golden rule, heart, independence, strength, dignity, honesty...to name but a few.

This year, I'm celebrating with a goofy sketch of a vase of flowers, and a note to tell Grandma Happy Mother's Day too, both stuck to the frig with magnets.

Just as good.