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I posted this three years ago but it offers something that might be helpful to some readers today...
It was a pair of wool socks that did it.
Well, actually it was a picture of pairs of wool socks in one of the catalogs that arrive around this time of the year. A pair of wool socks...
I was thumbing through the catalog and came across a page of socks. They looked thick, warm, 100% wool and the colors and patterns were beautiful. My finger stopped the turning pages and I paused to see if I might order these for my mother for Christmas...
All of this happened in about 3 seconds before I remembered: my mother died in August 1994. Remembered? Well, I hadn't actually forgotten. But for a few seconds the Christmas list slowly forming in my mind's eye had stopped to peg those socks for my mother. You see, my mother liked warm wool socks and many were the years when among the gifts I gave her were 100% wool socks for her feet.
You'd think that after 13 years this wouldn't happen anymore but it does. And not just when I'm paging through catalogs. I can be at the mall or in a gift shop while on vacation and spot a trinket or souvenir and for a few split seconds reach out to buy it for my mother...
I hope it's a sign of how much I loved her and she loved me that the impulse to buy her a gift can still be so strong within me. Years ago such moments were painful and only served to remind me that she was gone. As time passed, those same moments came to serve as points of connection with the woman who gave me birth and whom I called Mom for 47 years.
I think I'll buy some 100% warm wool socks and send them to Rosie's Place. Someone's mother is there and her feet will be chilly this winter. I'd like to offer her the warmth my heart still holds for my own mother.
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yearofgrace2011
This is a beautiful post. Your mother must be smiling down on her kindhearted son and wishing him warm and loving wishes for the Yule season.
ReplyDeleteGod bless,
Rosemary
yes, this is a very beautiful post-
ReplyDeleteyour mother is for absolutely certain smiling on you right now (and always)-
this made me think of one particular Christmas...
my story is not as "warm and fuzzy" as yours (and I'm certain that it doesn't have the loving background and history), but...
It was a joke in my family that every year when we asked my father what he wanted for Christmas he always said, "a white shirt, argyle socks, and a handkerchief"- that was all he wanted- everyone said how boring that was and those were things he needed, but what about things that he WANTED?
Well, nobody ever actually got him those things, but one year I decided I would get him all three. It got a laugh and was a "joke", but I think he actually liked the gifts.
anyway, thank you for bringing a good memory to mind...
I'll bet he really did like them and if that was the case, it wasn't a joke, it was a great gift - and a good memory, too!
ReplyDeleteA lovely and heartening story that exposes our human needs and the enduring strength of love. I too can relate to "that sudden impulse" to buy gifts for my own mother even though she died in 1996. She adored shopping and loved rummaging in the sales too.I often have little
ReplyDelete" head and heart (?!)conversations" with her and exchanges of opinion on which items to buy, especially at Christmas. Your generous and loving gesture of giving to Rosie's place is a fine one and maybe your Mum "prompted" you ?!!
Blessings
Excellent Post.
ReplyDeleteI do think those thoughts are a sign of how much you loved her and your connection with her.
buying those socks for Rosie's Place is a nice honor to her.
Happy Christmas Sir!
I always think of you when I think of sock for a gift at Christmas. I do not remember when I heard you speak about it, but it is something that I remember and some how feel more connected to you.
ReplyDeleteTeacher