My mother loved buttons. No, I mean she really loved buttons, collecting thousands of them, keeping them in jars and her favorite ones in aluminum pie pans to place on her walker to ‘play with’. When I raced to her apartment at The Home for Wayward Seniors on the day of her final fall that led to her death a month later, she lay in a sea of buttons- they had flown everywhere when the walker went over with her. I will never forget the sight, and the gut knowledge that this was not ‘just another fall’. I felt incredible tenderness and love for her as we waited for the medics to come, trying to make her comfortable, and I cleaned up all of the buttons to clear the way for the medics and the stretcher
After Mom died, I worked my tail off packing up, giving away, and cleaning out her apartment. All of the furnicture was out, and every corner was vacuumed and scrubbed. My sister came to help me finish up, and after the memorial service we went to give the place one more check my sister was in the kitchen cleaning, and I went into Mom’s bedroom where she fell. Right at that spot where nothing had been before was a single white button. Chills went over me and I called to my sister. We both cried, knowing this had been a hello from Heaven. I keep the button pinned in my clarinet case now.
Yesterday was a rough re-entry back to school after a wonderful holiday. I had been missing Mom, a flood of emotions brought on by Christmas decorating, Mom’s favorite time of year. As I opened the back door to my car I leaned in to pick up my clarinet case and jerked back when I saw this:
No one had been in my car, I hadn’t worn any button-downs or carried any clothes in the car, and it had recently been vacuumed out, too. There was no rhyme nor reason for it to be there- except that there was. It was another one of those little smiles from Heaven that come just when you need them most. I had the most wonderful first day back at school after that, feeling that I was wrapped in love. What a wonderful gift I had been given.
Thank you, Momma.
The View from Here 
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“Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!” ― Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Quotes by Dr. Seuss | | | | | |
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Denise, I have no doubt your Mom has never left you and never will. What gifts she continues to give you! Made me think of my Mom and her button box. Thank you and have a wonderful Holiday Season.
My great-grandmother had a old tin that was full of buttons. I have no idea how I wound up with it (she passed away back in the 1980s), but I did…and I treasured it. She had loved collecting them and never wasted anything, so she always stuck stray buttons in that tin. (And some of those old buttons were really pretty!). Anyway, when we moved from New York to Ohio, somehow that old tin got misplaced. I was, and am, heartbroken. Isn’t that silly to be so sad over something as mundane as buttons? But of course it is what they represent…a time lost and memories of my Nana.
Elle, thanks so much for sharing your story with me. Your feelings are not silly at all- it is beautiful that you treasured your Nana’s special buttons.
I love this so much. You’re stories have Heavy D living in my heart. Thank you for sharing! ❤️
Thank you so much, Mary Jo. The stories keep her with me. ❤️