excerpted from
The Fragrance of Kindness 
"A Little Box for Mother"
by Lucinda Secrest McDowell
During
my growing-up years, my mother was a wonderful
model of thoughtfulness when it came to sending cards for
every occasion. Both she and my father corresponded
faithfully with us kids whether we were at camp,
college or eventually living a continent away.
However,
as Mama entered her seventies,
she was prone to forget special occasions, and even when
she remembered, had a hard time getting the cards,
stamps, address, and mailbox all together at the same time.
This gave me the idea for a special Christmas gift for her --
one that
took a whole year to plan and carry out.
Every
holiday that year -- Valentine's Day,
Mother's Day, Easter , etc. -- I made a point of buying extra greeting
cards and stashing them away for Mama. As Christmas drew
close I carefully addressed each card to Mama's extended family
(children, grandchildren, sisters, mother) put the proper postage
on the envelope and added a sticky note on the front indicating
the date it needed to be mailed. Then I placed all the cards in a box,
filled them separately by months, wrapped up the box,
and gave Mama a whole year's worth of correspondence!
All
she had to do was sign the card and mail it!
copyright Lucinda Secrest McDowell
