I decided to tackle the front closet yesterday. It required donning hockey gear to prevent injury. At the bottom, was a box with lots of pictures I’d forgotten about. As I unwrapped them and handed Ellie the bubble wrap to play with, I came across a picture of my Mom walking on the beach. The tears just came rolling down my cheeks.

Ellie asked if I had the happy tears. I showed her the picture, told her that I hadn’t seen it in a long time, and it made me miss her. I explained that she was absolutely the best Mom in the whole world. Ellie thought maybe I shouldn’t look at it since it made me sad. That made me giggle and my tears disappeared as quickly as they welled up.

A few hours later, Ellie and I were quietly working on our Thanksgiving tree project together. Out of the blue she said, “Mom, I know it makes you sad to not have your Mom here. But, you know what that means? It just means that now you’re the best Mom in the whole world.”