Today is an exciting one on Five More Minutes With as we announce our second annual Memory of Mom contest.
As in the past, we are launching a Mother’s Day contest to find the most inspiring story about Mom. Big thanks to Fairytale Brownies, which has generously donated the prize for our winning writer.
For those remembrances shared between today and Thursday, May 10, 2012, you will automatically be entered to win a dozen assorted, fresh-baked Fairytale Brownies in a beautiful Mother’s Day keepsake tin shipped to your home.
As always on Five More Minutes With, you are encouraged to explore the site for inspiration, then submit your own story to share.
Answer the question: What would you say if you had Five More Minutes With. . .Mom?
And what better way to salute Mom than with her very own story just in time for her big day?
Not to mention the chance to win a dozen fresh-baked brownies in tantalizing flavors such as Original, Espresso Nib, Caramel, and Cream Cheese–enough to share with friends and family while you reminisce about Mom. Afterwards, use the keepsake tin to store letters from or photos of your mother.
It’s easy to Share Your Story here.
I spent a couple of hours this past Sunday with my mother, a woman who was once a world famous physician and now has difficulty even comprehending simple sentences. We sat on the bench outside of the Alzheimers unit to which she has been confined, looking into a cloudless blue sky, warmed by sun, caressed by the gentlest of breezes as she told me, over and over again, of the joy she receives from just sitting and looking at nature, a joy that is far more rare now that she must be accompanied everywhere she goes.
I recalled a most rare afternoon in my early teens when she had piled five or six of us brothers and sisters into the old Rambler station wagon and driven to a small park on the outskirts of Philadelphia called Valley Green. There we ambled aimlessly along rock lined walks in heavy shade, picking up small rocks, playing in the shallow waters of the stream, dallying in nature.
My mother, even then, was a busy woman. We never saw much of her. Recently, asked to prepare her obituary for when it becomes necessary, I had the opportunity to review her curriculum vitae – an outstanding 30 pages detailing a body of work that would have been daunting to produce for a single person let alone this mother of 11 – and wondered how she’d ever had time for any of us. We’d been lucky to have that day with her…that one precious afternoon.
Now we can have all the afternoons we want but we cannot go far from the place she now recognizes as home. Now she is the mother I always wished for as a child, available, cuddly, wanting to hear my stories. As an adult, I miss her intelligence but the child in me loves her sweetness, her untroubled face, the pure love she now seems to exude as we snuggle side by side in the spring air taking in together what she called “that purple sky.”
Comment by Victoria Pendragon — May 1, 2012
This is so beautifully written, Victoria. Thank you for sharing it.
I would like to post it as a Featured Story on the Five More Minutes With Home Page.
Do you have a photo of your Mom you could send along via e-mail?
[email protected]
Thanks if you are able!
brj
Comment by Braiden — May 7, 2012