A Mother's Legacy

A mother's influence cannot be measured, quantified, bottled, bought or sold.  It is like sunlight that warms those in its influence and they grow.  She is.  Her influence is.  Her legacy is. 



Today I bought a thrift store book entitled, "A Mother's Legacy."  Inside were empty pages with questions at the top.  Questions like, "What was the house like you grew up in?"  "Describe your first date," and, "How were you proposed to?"  What?  Is that her legacy?  Real legacy stories include moments like stopping from making a bed, then, sitting with a 9 year-old in her lap watching a spring sunrise.  What question in the book was there to retell that story?  So many stories that will never be told, but those are the legacy stories.  Like the day the family dog was killed at the school bus stop and your 6th grade child had to write an essay THAT day, "Tell about your dog."  The sitting and crying together after school - that is a legacy story.  The day you spent looking for a bridal gown, and not finding anything.  Praying, "Where in all of Southern California is there a dress for my child?"  Finding a perfect Jane Austen "Emma" dress.  A legacy story.  Holding a child in the night, sewing on Scout badges, helping with homework, band-aids and kisses, reading bedtime stories, sitting in Church together, Halloween costumes, making school lunches when they are old enough to make them for themselves.  All legacy stories.  Legacy stories seldom make newspaper headlines.  Neither does sunlight.