The Queen

Christmas morning, and I was entering the third month of onsite caregiving for my mother. As I waited for her to wake up, a memory surfaced. A time when, as a young and sudden widow, Mother was struggling to support three little girls. Every morning, predawn, she would dress in manly dungarees, kiss us goodbye and head out to work at the downtown railroad yard. When Christmas came, Mother managed to give each of us a special gift with a handwritten message. Her note to me read: Wear this sweater and feel like a pretty princess!

The memory of Mother’s gift, and especially the note that made me feel like a princess on that bleak Christmas, moved me to want to do something just as uplifting for her this Christmas.

I grabbed a pen and a yellow stickie pad and began to scribble a message to go with my wrapped gift to her. As I walked into Mother’s bedroom, I was smiling, praying that soon she too would be smiling when she read my note—Wear this plush bedjacket and feel like a queen!