A Note A Day – A Mother’s Gift

Jane grew up in the Midwest and lived a traditional lifestyle – a mom and dad and two brothers, a dog in the backyard and kids playing in the front. Every day she’d take a packed lunchbox to school, and within would be tucked personalized notes from her mother. She’d save the notes, but not out of sentimentality. Jane would come home, empty the lunchbox and set the notes aside in a side drawer.

After eating lunchbox food for nine years, Jane entered high school and left the lunchbox and personalized notes behind. The notes lingered in a drawer, eventually navigating up to her cedar chest along with old valentines and saved corsages from school dances. She left for college, moved out west and started her own life. When it came time to settle in her new house with her own family, she brought the cedar chest with her and started to review its contents.

Those personalized notes from her mother came as a shock to Jane. She finally sat down to reread them all – nine years’ worth. Many of the notes were simple – an “I love you,” or a reminder to enjoy the day. But some of them were insights in to her life growing up. One note told her how proud her mom was of her performance at a piano recital. Another told a story about her mom watching from a distance as Jane took care of a younger nerdy neighborhood girl. Memories from her childhood that she didn’t know existed came flooding back.
What really struck Jane was that her mom took the time to write a note every single day, even though Jane can never remember remarking on them. Day in and day out, her mom reminded her of her love, and day in and day out Jane failed to realize this as a kid. The most remarkable thing is that those daily notes, meant to be tossed aside in order to get to the sandwich and pudding, were inexplicably saved, a physical reminder of her mother’s love.

Jane framed many of the little notes, placing them throughout her new child’s nursery. She said it would be a perfect reminder of her own mother’s presence the child’s life. It was also a reminder to herself that even when you think your child is not paying attention, all those displays of motherly love do make a difference some day.