Time to Give Back
This morning I received an email from one of our readers, Carol James. I was touched by it and have asked her permission to share it here, which she has granted:
I’m just sending out a notice/reminder to all of you (yeah, I know some of you don’t need reminders and some have seen it on Facebook, LOL!) that Mom’s 89th birthday is the 26th of this month, she is living away from home for this birthday, anxious, debilitated, and lonely, and I am asking everyone to send her birthday cards. I want her mail to be overflowing – and remember, I obviously don’t want our address going over the internet to everybody with a computer, BUT, if you know a kind person or co-worker or relative who would enjoy sending a birthday card to brighten up an old lady’s day, please give them the info. If you have friends who live in other countries, please take a moment to email them with the info to see if they could send her a card from outside the USA; if you know any semi-famous people who could drop her a note; if you have a church or social group who want to do a good deed; she would find all that incredibly exciting! I’m starting now to give everyone plenty of notice, and I’m hoping she gets cards throughout the whole month. I realize these will mostly be from strangers, but all her life Mom has been especially kind to strangers and I think it’s time we returned the favor. Be sure to have everyone put their location on the card so she can see the geographical range of well-wishers. At the end of the month, I want to take a picture of her with all her cards.
I was personally touched by this because May is also my grandmother’s birthday, and this year I will be missing her a lot.
So here’s what I’m hoping. I’m asking all of you to get behind this and send Carol’s mom a birthday card this month. This is a great community and I’m hoping we can take a few minutes of our time to brighten her day. If you’re willing to participate, please drop Carol an email to get her mother’s address. Let’s do this project together. It’s a great way to honor someone, and a great way to help out someone in our community!
I look forward to hearing lots of you participated!
Tagged with: values
Filed under: Simply Life
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I’m honored, Kathy, and you’re all making me tear up. For those who don’t know, Mom was living alone almost 4 years ago when she was in a car wreck and broke her right hip and left ankle. She has always been an anxious person, but obviously this sent her over the top. After she got out of ICU and rehab, she moved in with my sister for 3 years in Memphis, and the continuous care-taking began to take its toll last spring, so before my sister had a nervous breakdown, we decided Mom would move to Maine to live with me and my husband for a while. The trip was in 100-degree heat, a nightmare for an infirm lady with a walker who tends to move an inch at a time.
She has wet macular degeneration and can’t do much reading anymore, so she watches TV and listens to the radio all day long. Not much quality of life. Now this week she says it hurts too much to chew and requested some baby food.
On top of that, we are having to take her dog of 7 years to the shelter to place her for adoption into a loving home, as I am afraid she will hurt Mom accidentally (she has run into her legs and the walker several times while staying here).
I am so pleased about the response we’ve had, thanks to people like Kathy, and I know this will be the birthday to remember! God bless you all!
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Kathy Reply:
May 2nd, 2012 at 10:25 am
Carol, I’m so glad we have this opportunity so thank you! As you know, my grandmother’s birthday is also in May. I will be missing her greatly this first year without her. Add that to the upcoming Mother’s Day holiday which she and I always celebrated, and this just seemed like a great way to give back to someone. I’m pretty sure my Gram would be proud of that.
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This is such a positive thing to be able to do. Mother’s are special! Grandmothers are special. I wish we could honor them more. To live the lives they have to get us where we are today is certainly something to be very thankful for.
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I told Carol this directly but wanted to comment here too. I really appreciate the chance to do this for someone. Something that might seem small to the sender, like a card, can mean so much to the receiver. Mother’s Day is this week and not only is it the first Mother’s Day since my mom died but it is also the 3-month mark since the last day I saw her. It’s been a hard week or two. I appreciate the chance to do something for someone else that takes my mind off thinking about my own woes. I enjoyed going card shopping and thinking about someone else for a minute. I appreciate you and Carol giving u
s the chance to do something nice for her mom.
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