Giving Thanks

Sharon Lalor
11/19/39-4/21/07

Wow...has it really been over two weeks since my last post?! Well, this time of year is crazy for me. I just finished up a bunch of pre-Thanksgiving sewing jobs, as well as squeezing in a trip out to my mother's house last weekend to clean it up and get it ready to sell.

My sister and I went out with Kathleen, and we really made some good headway, for only having a day and a half of work time! We made one trip to the dump, and one trip to Salvation Army. Then we cleaned and "staged" the place. There is still a TON of stuff we need to get organized, but we left things looking very good.

My first bit of thanks for today goes to my mother, who saved some of the cutest stuff from our childhoods. Marj and I found cards sent to my parents when she was born. There are photo albums like you wouldn't believe, as well as boxes of more recent photos, which we'll have to organize at some point. Kathleen has volunteered herself and Madeline to put them all in scrapbooks. I don't think she has ANY clue the task at hand!

There are cassette tapes of us singing together as kids...classic hilarity. We were good singers, but the conversation in between songs is the best part....a fantastic glimpse at the girls we once were. Thanks, Mom, for saving all that stuff, even though it's been cluttering up attics and basements and barns for the last 30 yrs. I mean, seriously, do I have to save Kathleen's kindergarten artwork too? Sigh. I guess I do! :)

Speaking of my mother, her birthday was three days ago, on the 19th. She would have been 68 this year. That was a difficult day for me. In fact, it's been a difficult week. Yesterday, while peeling apples for an apple pie, the smell and the sight of them brought back memories of peeling apples, and helping Mom make pies when I was a kid. She always made her own crust, and made little tarts filled with raspberry jam with the leftovers. They were like our little reward for helping out. So I peeled apples and cried a bit, but smiled through my tears. These are all good memories, and ones that I'd love to pass down to my daughter--traditions and comforts that will be remembered when she is an adult.

OK, since this is a post about thanks, I guess I'll just dedicate the whole thing to Mom. My last bit of news for today is that we have an offer on her house, just four days after it was listed. We'll be closing in mid-January, and my heart once again fills, because thanks to Mom, I'll be able to buy a house of my own, and put down some of my own roots with Kathleen. She'll have a place to call her own, and she'll be able to come home to it someday from college, and know that it's ours. This too makes me cry, because as a single, self-employed mother, homeownership seemed to be a distant dream. Today, that dream is much closer to reality.

Thanks, Mom. I miss you.

Remember the ones you care about today. Hold them close, tell them you love them, thank them for the place they fill in your heart. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.