A quote: “Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many – not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” ~~ Charles Dickens

I’ll start with a story …

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I was looking for some pictures mama gave me before she passed when I found the shoebox. There, on the shelf in the closet in the nursery. Funny, I still call it that, even after it became mama’s room and I moved Grace to the larger bedroom.

Gracie grew up fast that summer when she was nine and her meemaw was dying of cancer just across the hall.

Inside were some dried flowers and a couple of yellowed concert tickets and I couldn’t breathe. All these years and it’s like you left yesterday.

You were literally the “girl next door”, our moms were best friends. Hell, girl, we were every small-town cliché, right down to the church basement reception and a baby born six months after the wedding.

We poured everything into the ramshackle house your great uncle got us. We painted the nursery yellow, a cheerful color. Not that it made you happy, though. So, I scrimped, saved and got tickets to your favorite band. And I watched you more than the stage, seeing your eyes light up like they used to.

So I shouldn’t have been surprised when I woke the next morning to Grace’s hungry cries, and you were gone.

Maybe it’s a sign. Grace is packing for college, and I need to finally let you go.

I grab mama’s pictures and dump the shoebox in the trashcan.

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Now, it’s your turn.
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. featured image, cropped, Adobe Stock standard license.