A Belated Birthday Gift from my Mom - Reposted

Today has been a day of gathering up little messy piles of "stuff"  that have accumulated around the house.  Sorting them and getting rid of some of them.

First thing that had to go was an old TV.  One of those great big heavy TVs.  It still worked but we  replaced it with a flat screen TV that was my mom's.

The old TV has been sitting on a table in the sunroom.  Just sitting there.  Looking ugly.  Until we just all but stopped noticing it.  That's when it's really bad - when you stop noticing it.  

Anyway - it's on its way to the women's shelter as we speak.  It and a few other things like unopened toiletries we've picked up in hotels.  Some canned goods.  Some linens.  Just stuff we don't need that someone else might be able to use.

And while doing this I finally found myself ready to tackle a box of stuff that I had put aside.

A box from my mom's.

There are still things in that box I'm not ready to go through - photo albums, etc.

But I found my birthday bag.

This silly little bag means the world to me and we have always treated it like it was a family heirloom.

Mother always put my birthday present in here.  I would open the present, fold the bag up nicely and return it to her.  And we would laugh and laugh that sometimes the bag was way more important than the gift itself.  We had reached the point where our birthday gifts were just teeny little remembrance kinds of things.  

I had told my friend Diane that I would take a picture of the bag this past November when my birthday rolled around, but I didn't.  I just wasn't ready to go to the box where I knew it was temporarily living.

But I pulled it out today so I could take that promised picture.

And there was something in there.

Y'all.

I have been a puddle since finding this.

I'm just going to let the pictures speak for themselves, other than to say, this past birthday wasn't going to be one of those silly little gift birthdays.  

My mom bought me something very special.  

She knew how very much I love pearls.  I always have.

The very first really nice piece of jewelry i received from my mom and dad for my 16th birthday was a pearl ring which i cherished.

Sadly, it was stolen from our hotel room in Amsterdam back in 1984.  I'm still mad about it.

Probably when next you see me, I'll be wearing this gift.  From now until forever.

Love you, Mama.  thank you.

miss you

❤