The Drawer

The Drawer

Okay so I’m crazy about this Lady – My mother

Cleaned out my “Save all the Special Stuff Drawer”

Passport – save

Buttons for the new stuff I bought that will be there forever because by the time the buttons get lost a new blouse will be bought – toss

New camera charger – save

Broken camera charger – toss

Credit cards that cost me a pretty penny in interest charges – cut

Pinking Shears that I don’t want the grandkids to use – save

Receipts for the stuff that I got that I may take back like the blouses with buttons that I bought – toss

Fingernail clippers that I hide from my husband – save

Dull hair snippers – save

Invitation to the wedding I don’t really want to go to – toss

Prayer book I pray from when I lie to the people who sent me the invitation – save

All the cards my mother gave to me on my birthdays and other holidays – save

The Christmas red and green scarf with the glitter threads woven into it, the one that she knitted with her nimble tired fingers from raising 9 kids and working 3 jobs just to feed them – save

Her extra pair of dentures that she took in her suitcase when she went on a trip in case her good ones broke like they did that time in Mexico – save

Her oxygen tank key – save

Her blue and white disabled parking permit – save

Her prescription sunglasses that I will make into mine after I have cataract surgery - save

The Christmas tapes of her stories that she told to the children when she gave out her humble homemade gifts after the 3 shots of brandy she swallowed just to get up the nerve because she was somewhat of an introvert – save

The envelope with the tissue in it with the dried blood on it from her arm that she scraped on the car door as she was making her dash to her second to the last doctor appointment, the one when she was hoping for a miracle diagnosis – just one more go-around for the old girl – save

The tears all over the inside of the drawer with my mother’s stuff in it because without her I feel lost without the woman who I know they are saved for –

Close the drawer

Linda