In recent years, we had hosted Mother’s siblings for an Easter Sunday meal, but at this point, some of her younger sisters were dealing with personal health matters. Never having had caregiver support on Sundays and holidays meant keeping things simple for this year’s celebration. It would be a table for two.
How would we commemorate this special day together?
Easter 2010 – Beautiful Music, Flowers, and a Purple Shawl
Amazon responded to our clicks with the delivery of several CD’s, so we heard gorgeous classical music all weekend. Selections were based on the artists and familiarity with these works, some of which I had performed with Chicago choral groups.
In addition, UPS unexpectedly delivered a clean all-white box addressed to my parents’ attention at our current address. My father had been deceased for five years, so we knew this was no ordinary delivery.
Inside, we found a note card with a hand-written message from the daughter of a now-retired science teacher in India. The box contained a gift for Dad and one for Mother.
Retrospectively…
Through an international cultural exchange program, Vimal Kumar Johnson, the teacher
from India, had lived and worked on the farm 40+ years earlier and had assumed a role as an adopted son to my parents.
The package was sent from Indianapolis by a couple who were missionaries in the Himalayan Mountains, now back in their Indiana home on furlough. Through an internet search, they had assisted Vimal’s daughter, Vinita, in locating Dad and Mother’s current address.
“Oh, They Found Us!”
I was excited – knowing what this would have meant to my parents in earlier years. Leaning in close to Mother while she followed along, I read the note card from Vinita and the note from the couple in Indiana.
Mother understood. She caught the excitement and said so quietly and eloquently: “Oh, they found us!” She then took the wood sculpture from the package – a face intended for holding Dad’s eyeglasses at night and held it up to touch her cheek – and she beamed.
The design in the beautiful purple shawl had all the muted colors of Mother’s turtle neck shirts woven into it. She looked so elegant in her wheelchair with the shawl draped around her – simply regal.
An email address now reduced the distance separating us. We googled the address, found a website for the mission work of Vimal’s daughter and son-in-law – and voila! – in touch!
Gift Sparks Reminiscence and New Family
The purple shawl was a gift which immediately brought to life our memories of that period on the farm. It revived an empathic bond to the past, opened a new tech connection to the future, and prompted the gift of learning about new family in the Himalayan Mountains – all from the comfort of the ranch kitchen.
That period of confinement at the ranch did not feel so different from our current period of “social distancing” today. Sending a gift – whatever it may be – has potential to revive an old bond, open a new tech connection to the future, and enlarge the concept of “family.”
To read about other gifts which helped us mark this occasion during our period of confinement in Mother’s final years, you are invited to browse our gift gallery and scroll down to “Easter.”
Author: Susan Troyer
