Greetings! I had difficulty getting into the Christmas greeting mood this year and my Christmas letter was a bit abbreviated and I didn’t get greetings sent to all whom I wanted to remember. Perhaps that is good, because now I can add the wonderful stories of how Mom was with us this Christmas after all. Years ago Mom took a ceramics class and at that time she took me into the basement to point out some boxes. One was labeled Cathy Durham (our “adopted” sister) and Mom told me that after she was gone, I was to give that box to the Durhams. It contained a plate she had made in class especially for Cathy and then 4 others, one for each of Cathy’s children—including Renna Eldora—named in honor of Mom. Sue and I went to lunch with Cathy 2 days before Christmas and gave her the box. Cathy was blown away and felt so touched and loved by Mom’s gift—as I knew she would. Then Mom had also pointed out two boxes—one for Sarah and Stephanie, each of which contained a ceramic lighted Christmas tree. Sue and I decided the girls should open those on Christmas Eve as we were opening other gifts on Christmas Day. As I went in the basement to retrieve these boxes, I noticed a box, prominently placed on a table. Sue and I had been through the basement at Thanksgiving and we did not notice the box. If we had, we would have opened it. In fact, I could not ever remember seeing this box before. It was labeled Sarah and Stephanie. Inside was a note that said, “Sarah and Stephanie, I made these for you in ceramics class.” The box contained two ceramic girls, one sitting on a bench by a spinning wheel and the other sitting on the ground holding a basket of apples. Each girl had a cat beside her. Sue and I are convinced that somehow Angel Eldora moved that box in a prominent place so I would see it and deliver it to the girls at the same time that they got their trees! Stan wondered why she hadn’t given these gifts while she was alive so she could enjoy the reaction to them, but I know Mom well enough to know that for her, the joy was in anticipating how Cathy and the girls would react when they got these gifts after she was gone. It is just one more example of how kind and thoughtful and generous Mom was. We couldn’t have had more ample proof that she was celebrating Christmas with all of us-- Sue Jahn, Sarah Jahn and Stephanie Jahn
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 18:01:28 +0000