Thank You
Dear Mom,
Thank
you being such a wonderful mother and role model. I learned so much from you
that I cannot ever thank you enough. The stories that you shared about your
childhood helped me appreciate you as a person,
the age in which I grew up, and the decisions that you and Dad made for my
siblings and me.
When I
see something that I think it stupid, I imagine you sitting in a restaurant
with your mom and getting annoyed with “some dumb kid” for putting crackers in the
salt shaker. This helps me remember to put myself in someone else’s shoes
before judging too harshly because there may be a very good and legitimate
reason for the behaviors I am judging as stupid. You would have really like my
teammate’s approach to life… she starts every day by putting on baby oil
because then she smells good and all of the challenges just slide right off! If
I can become more consistent in putting these two ideas to work for me, I will
be a much happier, more relaxed, and more enjoyable person.
The stories
that you shared about my siblings and me as very young children helped me to
appreciate the little things that my little one says. I offered Addie a special
“Grammy plate” (one of the cute city plate sets that you bought for me because
it made you think of me), and she started to reach for it and then said, “No
thank you. I will just eat it from my hand.” I smiled and laughed softly
because for some reason, her response made me think of Greg saying, “Me no like
bongo beans!” Being able to hear something so sweet from my Addie girl’s mouth
and thinking of Greg as a little tike so many years ago makes me happy.
Addie
and I went to Brenda’s to dye Easter eggs with her mom, niece, and great-niece
and nephews. It wasn’t the same as when we dyed eggs growing up. They have a tradition
that I haven’t actually seen yet, but it somehow involves dozens of colorful
eggs and tapping them against each other to see whose egg will last the longest.
At the end of the day, Brenda sent me a photo of me helping Addie scoop an egg
out of pink dye and I could really see you helping Becky or me in that photo.
It made me happy and sad at the same time, which I’m finding more and more as
life goes on without you.
It’s
time for bed, Mom, but I really want you to know that you touched so many lives
in so many ways, and I thank you and Dad for raising me in a way that inspires
me to touch lives in positive ways as well. I love you.
Love,
Lulu
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