The Simplest Gifts

With Hubby not driving by choice, and necessity, of late, there was no store bought gift this year for Mother’s Day. That’s fine by me. It’s not our style anyway. We’re both more prone to loving gestures as gifts than piles of things to clutter already too cluttered lives.

I suppose it’s just something about to people prone to writing getting together. I have a big box full of the gifts Hubby has given me over the years: mostly poems, letters, and song lyrics set only to whatever melody pops into my head while reading them. In exchange, I give letters, short stories, and the occasional baked goods to satisfy the sweet tooth he harbors.

You would think a Mother’s Day spent sick would be one of the worst, but I’ve received three of the best gifts today. They didn’t cost a dime but mean so much more to me than something bought and paid for would have.

I’m prone to ear infections and one set in for both ears last Friday. My doctor prescribed antibiotic drops. There’s one problem with antibiotic drops to treat ear infections; they’re next to impossible to take by yourself without risking contaminating the bottle by hitting your ear with the dropper. I tried exactly once and wasted quite a bit of the drops in the process.

Hubby’s been so helpful, dutifully counting out the dosage for me twice a day this past week despite the damage waiting for the drops to work did to his schedule. Then this morning, when I fell back asleep waiting the requisite ten minutes or so for the drops to work in the second ear, he decided to just let me sleep and by providence allowed me to sleep through the ear drum rupturing. For those of you who have never experienced, or remember experiencing, an ear infection rupture I’ll tell you, it’s very painful. It takes a couple of hours for the pain to recede and equilibrium to return to normal, but once it does, there’s an immense sense of relief.

Then there’s Boo, little empathetic Boo. She woke and came toddling, still half asleep herself, into our room about the time I woke again. I helped her up onto the “big bed,” and she sat with me as I waited for the lingering pain and off balanced feeling to fade. After a while, she snuggled up to my side and wrapped her hand around my finger, doing all she knew to do to comfort another.

So there it is. My Mother’s Day was sweet and simple this year. The gifts may have not cost a thing. They’re not tangible, but I’ll carry the memories forever.

Happy Mother’s Day moms.

* Pictures is me with Boo when she was just two weeks old.