Monday, January 17, 2011

Happy birthday to my mom

today would have been my mom's 80th birthday. she passed away 2 years ago from multiple myeloma- a nasty kind of blood cancer. we were very close- we talked every day, and i visited her( she and my dad lived about 1 & 1/2 hours away from my house) i really, really miss her! part of me is glad,though, that she did not have to worry( and i know that she would have worried) about my health.of course, my cancer has a good success/treatment percentage, and hers did not.

anyway, i decided to try to honor her in some way. her favorite color in the whole world was red. and i am talking fire truck, cherry pie, stop sign, red bird  red. not pink,fushia, or whatever watered down versions of red you can  think of. i have never purchased  any red clothing- up to now.  i have red hair, so red clothes are just, well, over the top. but today, by golly, you could see me from one end of the store to the other! i wore a bright red- it had glitter on it, another favorite of my mom's, shirt. also, i had on a red heart necklace and red heart earrings. i had on one of the rings she left me- a red garnet( her birthstone). i bought a bracelet from "choose hope" - the one that represents multiple myeloma. guess what, the color for that cancer just happens to be red,too!

i know this was a small thing. she is always on my mind, but this just made me feel happy somehow.today  my daughter sent me a picture/text on my phone. it was a picture of her fingernails. they were painted bright red- " for gabby" she said. my children called my mom,"gabby". next year perhaps, i will do something more noble in her honor. a donation to charity, an article for the newspaper- she was a well loved and respected teacher, something like that. but next year i will be wearing red on january 17th,too. and maybe, just maybe,  i will add more red to my wardrobe. as one of our cashiers said today, " i have never seen you wear that color before, bea. it looks good on you." well, i am not sure how good it looked, but it sure did feel good. happy birthday, mom!!

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