Today is my mom’s birthday; she would’ve been 88. I miss her. I miss sending her boxes of Christmas candy for her birthday, especially the ribbon candy she loved. I miss the birthday phone call, where she would tell me how much she liked the candy, and laugh about sharing it with others in the house.
I miss sending her funny/meaningful/ugly ornaments. Last month my sister and I had time to go through mom’s ornaments…each of us getting back those we had given her over the years. I am certain mom is snickering a bit in heaven, knowing those monstrosities I once sent her now adorn my tree. It is just one more example of my mom’s humor and admirable long-game influence.
This year, as we brought out our Christmas décor, we unearthed a few forgotten boxes. In one, was a pair of raggedy tennis shoes. More evidence of my mom’s long-game influence. You see, when I was in high school, I had a favorite pair of tennis shoes. I wore them daily for years and wore them out. We are talking toes hanging out the side, threadbare, and in general an unsightly mess level of worn out. She hated those shoes. I refused to give them up. So, before getting married, I wrapped them and presented them to her with fanfare in a nod of thanks for her long-suffering of the fashion indignity. It was funny. She appreciated the gesture, and I thought that was the end of the story…but not my mom. That crazy lady tucked the shoes away for another season. Cue the day my own son was in middle school, and I was picking him from a church event…yep, there was my boy proudly wearing my raggedy tennis shoes, plopping step by step for all the world to see! Apparently, she had snuck them to him when they last visited her and paid him to wear them. My mom’s long game was strong then and now…while often in funny ways like the ornaments and the shoes…it is also strong in other ways.
When mom passed, I received her study Bible. I leafed through it briefly at the time, then set it on a shelf, intending to go through it another day…today was that day. I laughed and cried a bit as I unzipped the binder holding it together. The pages flopped open easily, revealing heavily highlighted text and copious hand-scrawled notes. I could hear her voice as I read her words. My own study Bible was nearby…As I unzipped the binder, the pages flopped open, revealing heavily highlighted text and copious hand-scrawled notes. Yep, in perhaps the best long game ever, my mom’s influence emerged from those pages. I turned to Phil. 4:6&7 in both. This was a verse she quoted to me often and one I had just covered in this week’s Advent blog post. My heart filled as I wiped away tears…there we were…mother and daughter. My mom’s long-game influence radiated from the pages. I had no idea how similar our Bibles had become. Our highlight colors of choice were different(neon green and yellow for me, pink for her), but the verses we marked were almost identical throughout the pages. My mom’s penmanship was normally much neater than mine, but in her notes, like me, she was less careful…perhaps like me, her notes were never intended for anyone but herself, written in haste to capture a thought before it was lost. I especially love the notes she made below verse 7, “Life is good!” Smiley face…and further down on the page “Be positive toward people…(pray)about everything, about thinking, a
simple approach to life”. This is the mom I miss.
This month we wrap up our year of “firsts” without her…but each of these days are made sweeter in knowing she played a long game of influence and left us all with powerful memories of laughter and faithfulness.
Tuesday With Teri 