Valentine Gift

 

 

When Ron and I walked the Vegas Strip one day, we saw many street vendors.   I typically am not that interested in their wares. But when I saw that one vendor was using palms like you receive on Palm Sunday, I had to go over and see what he was making.  I was so thrilled we stopped; the man was making roses out of the fresh palms.  He had just finished a bouquet of six roses like a bridesmaid would hold.  The middle rose he spray painted a dark pink. I knew this was meant for mom. 

Every Palm Sunday after church, mom would create lovely gifts for me and my brothers out of the palms she picked up at church.  I wish I had learned this talent from my mom while she could still teach me.  Well . . . coulda, woulda, shoulda: too late now.

 

 

On Saturday as promised, I headed to The Community* to spend some quality time with mom.  I had a special Valentine’s Day present for mom that we bought her in Vegas.  As I entered The Community* with my bouquet, everyone I met commented on the flowers and how much they liked them. 

After I stepped off the elevator, I noticed that have started redecorating the second floor which needed some sprucing up. After all their first floor was redecorated last year and looks great.

The residents were all still seated in the lunchroom so I went to mom’s bedroom to straighten and organize her closet before she saw me.  When I finished mom was sitting around the nurses’ desk.

“You’re . . . back!”

“We came home last night.”

“Nice  . . . time?”

“Yes, we had a very nice time.  Ron and I bought you a Valentine’s present.”

“Beautiful!”  Mom studied the flowers.

“Mom, the roses are made out of fresh palms.”

“Oh   . . .  yeah”

“The palms are the same type of palms you would use to make us gifts on Palm Sunday.”

 

“I don’t . . . remember.”

“You are very talented.  You made many gifts for us.”

“Not . . . no more.”

“That’s OK.  Now you have this beautiful bouquet.”

“Beautiful.”

“Let’s go to your room and you can show me where you would like me to place it.”

“OK.”

Mom liked the bouquet best on her TV.