A Tearful Christmas Memory

My "Mummy" loved Christmas. She adored decorating, buying gifts, and getting as well as sending Christmas cards. An enthusiastic participant of church holiday bazaars, she always found more treasures to add to her Christmas decorations.

Mummy was very ill with terminal cancer in her 90th year of life but she still decorated her room in our home, making it shimmer from top to bottom. After Christmas of that fateful year, one of Mummy's volunteers came to me, visibly upset.

"Your mother was crying as I packed away her Christmas decorations," she said. When asked why, Mummy told her,

"Because I know this is my last Christmas."

She knew she would not be around to decorate for any more holidays. Mummy died the following February, two months after her last earthly Christmas.

This year, while going up to our attic to retrieve Christmas trinkets, I came across a box of Mummy's decorations. A tinge of sadness came over me. Picking up her little snowmen, a few Santas, and her favorite needlepoint gingerbread house, I felt tears running down my cheeks.

Luckily, I inherited my mother's love for Christmas and our house is always decorated to the hilt. Seeds planted in childhood cannot be dug up!

If your mother is still alive, call her today and tell her you love her. Even better, if possible, pay her a visit and give her a hug.

I wish I could.