BEING THANKFUL HAS BEEN CATHARTIC

Unbelievably it's been a month already, a month since we buried Mom. A month filled with daily reminders of her being gone. Besides my own personal thoughts, extra hugs, phone calls and beautiful cards, there were the gift donations. Donations of prepared foods for my Dad and monetary donations to various charities/ causes. Over two boxes of Thank You notes, over 50 handwritten notes. But it's not the quantity I'm writing about but what the process of writing them has meant to me.

Mom was always the correspondent, the one to do the secretarial chores. It seemed natural for me as the eldest and daughter to offer to take over the thank you's and Dad didn't even hesitate letting me. 

What this entailed this past month were daily phone calls from Little Rock. After the mail arrived Dad would call with the news of whom he heard from that day. Sometimes he would even be opening the mail as he reported and reminisced of how they knew the individuals. Lifelong stories of friends who intersected their lives.  

Needless to say the calls, the time spent on the phone with my Dad and the process of thanking the kindnesses of family and friends  has been cathartic. 

You'll have to bear with me if I've shared this story before about how much mail arrives daily to my childhood home but I did speak about it at Mom's Celebration of Life. You see my folks's  mailman commented, not really complaining about the quantity of bulk mail he delivers there exceeds the quantity of their entire block. Why? Because my Mom gave to every charity under the sun and we all know that each donation generates at least 4 more mailings per month, right?  

So yes giving thanks has been cathartic, being appreciative most of all for the memories and the good these donations continue to do  - a reminder especially at this time of the year to give. 


Please give to your favorite cause/s and smile with the knowledge Hildegard would appreciate you taking over her job and making sure we also keep the postal service in business. Do excuse me as I have two more thank you's to write for donations to Hadassah and Mom's Bridge House, two of her many lifelong loves from lifelong friends...