by Mary-ann
In 2006 I lost my Mom to cancer. For anyone who has seen it, its a ghastly hateful disease. You would not let an animal suffer like that. Why do you have to let your nearest and dearest? Every day I think of my Mom, but I think of her smiling face, I can hear her kind words, not the hateful disease that was her end...
How to do I do this? Through the most useful gift basket I have ever received!
In my late teens/early twenties, I moved back home due to a car accident. I was back paying rent to my folks, and trying to remember to tell them when I'd be home(!).
What I didn't realize as it was going on behind the scenes, is what my Mom was doing...
...each week, while doing the weekly shop, she would pick up an item or two.
It might be a set of wooden spoons, a measuring jug, set of scales, etc. Every week, she'd take the item out of the shopping and put it in her room.
From what I can work out, she did this for many months.
Then following a successful interview, I was offered a job in a major city; away from home. I had family in the city, so arranged to lodge there for a few months, but I had an aim... a home of my own!
Well, through determination it all happened. 6 months after moving in with my Aunt & Uncle, I found my flat. The next day, Mom and Dad came to help me move in. They bought with them a huge box, which I did not recognize.
Mom said it was my house warming gift from them both.
In it was every item you could think of! All the things she had bought over the previous weeks and storing for this very occasion. As gift baskets go, it was the best I've ever seen.
As for the memories, everytime I make a cake, do the washing up, make a sauce, my Mom is with me, as I use the things she bought for me. Its a comfort on bad days to know that something she chose is still with me. Always.