Hi Friends,
We are officially in the spooky season! I’m in New Mexico, and I’m absolutely LOVING all the Day of the Dead decorations and celebrations here in the southwest, so of course I’m thinking about my own dead. I’m not sure what I believe about ghosts, an afterlife, or hauntings, but let’s just say this: I’m open to anything because I don’t know.
I also know that it seems very much like my mother has gotten me and my husband an anniversary gift every year since she died. I know how that sounds, but let me explain: A month after my mother died, I said to my husband, “It’s too bad my mother isn’t around. She always loved sending us something for our anniversary.” A few days later, I received a catalog from her former employer, explaining that she had worked there a number of years and to celebrate that anniversary, she should pick anything she wanted out of the catalog as a special gift.
I looked through the catalog, and there was some really great stuff. Of course I wanted the Karaoke machine (because who wouldn’t?) yet I also knew my mother would have wanted to get us something a bit more practical. She always worried I would cut myself because we had such terrible knives, so I went for the fancy (and expensive) knife set. I didn’t really think it would come, but on the day of our anniversary, the Henckles knife set arrived, and THE CARD WISHED US A HAPPY ANNIVERSARY (okay, the card was meant for my mother’s work anniversary, but still). Coincidence? Maybe.
The following year, I joked about what my mother would get us, and sure enough, the