A Gift

What do you do when your beloved father dies on the day your daughter gets engaged to be married?  

You put her happiness first and keep the sad news to yourself until the next day. This she did for me, and I will never forget it.

Years later when she was well into her dementia and receiving excellent care at a Masonic nursing home, I thought about what I would say at her funeral. Would I be able to remember any of the good after the nightmare we had been through for five years?

At first, the answer was no.

Then, I dug deep and remembered this story.  Then another and another.  Pretty soon I had ten wonderful stories and realized how good she was to me when it really counted.

Mother of the Year?  Not really.

Mother of the Year on the day I got engaged? Absolutely.