Dear Mom e-Letter
Remembering, Celebrating, Healing

Volume I, Issue 11
Gobble Gobble
November, 2006

Dear Reader,

Happy Thanksgiving!

Remember when you were young, and your mom told you to “count your blessings?” The familiar task assigned to us by those wise women was a way of making us remember all the good things we had in life on days we felt life was unfair.

When you count your blessings this Thanksgiving, do you think about the blessings you have received in life from those you love, especially your mother?

Most women I meet on the journey called Dear Mom place a very high value on the little things their mom did to make life special. And those little things were actually lessons on the very big things of life: values. And when moms depart this life for the next, the things we most miss are the little things that symbolized those big things.

The touch that said “I care.” The baked goods that said “Oh, my…” on your tongue and in your stomach. Her perfume that said, “That's MY mom!” Her ability to sit with rollers in her hair and watch a soap opera that said, “I don't care!”

And her ability to make turkey and all your favorite side dishes, which said, “This is going to be another Thanksgiving feast!”

Now I'm the Mom. I'm the one my daughter called to ask what size bird she should buy for a dinner for six. I told her a 22 pound bird would suffice. A little humor goes a long way, doesn't it?

Now I'm the Grandmother. I'm teaching Gavin to say “Gobble Gobble!” After he drives his mother crazy, I'll teach him to say, “Put a wobble in your gobble!” And he'll learn to say it with great enthusiasm. Because, after all, I am his “Gumma,” and that's the way we do things.

Sometimes gifts are hidden in humor, in life lessons and in plastic pink flamingoes. I was saddened to see that one of the greatest gifts of my mother's life—the embarrassment over plastic pink flamingoes in our prairie yard in the 60's—are no longer being made. No more plastic pink flamingoes??!!

My daughter facetiously thanked me for the gift of teaching Gavin to say “Gobble Gobble!” My other daughter may be amazed at just how big a 22 lb. turkey is. They might just count me as a blessing. Right?

Count your blessings, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Dee Dee