My Mom was a very creative person. When we were small, she made us groceries out of plaster of paris so we could play store. The produce looked SO real we wanted to eat it.

I’ll never forget my 6th birthday that had a Mary Poppins theme. She created Mary Poppins out of a hanger, sewed her outfit, including her carpet bag and this graced the center of my party table. We played the usual party games but I remember the prizes going along with the theme. I remember very specifically a yellow pin that looked like a parasol.  How I wanted to win those prizes!

When I was in fifth or sixth grade, Mom joined Weight Watchers. This was way back in the dark ages and, once her weight was lost, she became a lecturer for them.  She would draw her own posters every week to illustrate the point of her lecture and I think this was the first time I realized that Mom could really draw.

She drew a self portrait in the 80’s that my brother and sister and I saw here and there. We all agreed we needed to throw that away when we came across it while packing up her apartment last November.  She looked angry in the self portrait and I don’t think any of us wanted to remember Mom like that.

Mom was fun and she was unique. We always knew when she was angry though because her left eyebrow would raise, seemingly on its own.

I brought quite a few boxes of mom’s stuff home with me after we went through her storage units in May. I haven’t really had time to do much with them but I keep being surprised by the things I find when I take some time to look.

I was speaking with someone this a.m. who suggested I read The Traveler’s Gift. I told her that I have this book, it was in Mom’s things, and I pulled the book out of the box it was in while I was talking to her.

I just opened up the book and look what I found?

A little hand drawn, cut out, lady with a dog. I know Mom drew this. It’s like she’s still making me paper dolls. 🙂