It was the eve of Christmas and while most were asleep, Dad was busy in his study working on something unique for my mother. My mother had been the rock of our family while father worked hard to give us a better life. In between taking care of three particularly restless children, I being the most cumbersome, she had managed to grow a beautiful garden at our house. During the summer months, these flowers showcased all colors that were pleasant to the eyes. Almost like a painting by Van Gogh, my mother painstakingly and religiously spent so much time caring for her flowers or as she would sometimes call it, her behaved children.
Father was always out of the country during those summer months and would try to make time to join us every summer at the residence for at least a week, before an urgent phone call would have him packing his suitcase for a meeting somewhere in the world. I am sure this bothered my mom but she showed no signs of it. From time to time, she would take Polaroid’s of us and of her garden, leaving it at my father’s study for him to see how the summer was spent. Father took great pleasure in looking at them and during supper, he would sometimes ask about my mother’s garden.
A week before Christmas, there were already several Christmas hampers near the tree, some were retro hampers filled with classic chocolate, butterscotches, lemon limes and the like. These sweet treats were always in the house during the season as it was something of a tradition among my father’s friends to give each other Christmas sweets at this time. It also helped that his best friend, Uncle Albert, owned a wholesale sweets business which was reputedly known for its imaginative and creative contents during the season. In his study, Dad was arranging his gift for mother: a very special Christmas hamper. It was filled with candies shaped like flowers of different colors and shapes. Dad had a Polaroid picture with him and was comparing the picture with his arrangement, adding or taking away things to see if the composition of the hamper was right. In the morning, mom awoke to see in front of the Christmas tree, a very unique retro sweet hamper which looked like her garden, with the arrangements and colors inside, filled with candy flowers. I think it was one of the best gifts he ever gave to mom.
No comments:
Post a Comment