Friday, December 28, 2007

Icing on The Cake


Santa Claus and the birthday Gods hooked me up lovely this year! A couple of gifts in particular just floored me...

After having a stroke several years ago mom lost the ability to grip a pen. Writing her own name was nearly impossible but she could deal with that. It was the inablilty to pick up her pencils to draw that hurt her the most. Imagine being an artist and losing the physical ability to express yourself and create when the urge hits? Over the years she has slowly shown progress regaining the movement in her hand enough to write again but the complicated hand coordination of drawing and painting eluded her. Several weeks ago I saw her art supplies strewn all over the dining room table but didn’t give much thought to it at the time, she probably gave them to my sister to draw with I thought to myself. Ever since the stroke the woman had pretty much ignored her art supplies. To her they’d become painful reminders of what she’d lost.

After I was done opening all of my presents mom approached with her gift. It was a custom made skin for my laptop from Schtickers It was positively beautiful! Entitled “The 7 Virtues” the center of it featured an angel with black wings on a tarot card with my name above her. Behind the tarot card were wedges of gold with one of the 7 virtues written across each one. The angel looked vaguely familiar then it hit me the angel resembled my mother. “Ma this is gorgeous! Where did you get it? The angel kind of looks like you.” Ma's eyes sparkled and she gave me a smile. For once she didn’t even bother to cover the smile with her hand, a habit she'd picked up after her stroke. She’s very self conscious about her post stroke smile. “The angel does not look like me, it looks like my mother. It’s your grandmother. I drew it.”

I was stunned, “Pa did you see this?!” My dad got up and put his hands on her shoulders laying a kiss on the top of her head. I scanned my memory trying to recall if I'd ever seen this sketch in my mother's portfolio. I was certain I would have remembered it if I had. The last thing she drew before her stroke was the fairy I have tattooed on my arm. This had to be new. “Is this from before the stroke?” She shook her head, “No. I drew it a couple of weeks ago just for you.” My dad beamed with pride. "It knocked me on my ass to see her drawing again. I've got the original in a frame at work." I took a deep breath I don’t cry easily but this was pushing me towards the edge. “Oh ma, thank you! Is your hand okay, does it hurt?” “Ay Mia it's fine!", she said "I had no problem with my hand at all! And look…” she held her left hand up and snapped her fingers. We all stared at her in disbelief; she hadn’t been able to snap her fingers since her stroke.

The look on my dad's face was priceless, “Do it again babe!” my father demanded as he turned her around to face him. She gladly obliged snapping her fingers several times in rapid succession."Way cool right?" “Since when have you been able to do this?” he asked. “Since about five minutes ago.” She answered. This time it was my dad that choked up. He grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips but before he could kiss it she snapped her fingers again and again in his face. He started laughing and said, "Enough woman!" and grabbed her pulling her in for a big hug.

Yup like I said Mia must have been a very good girl this year because Santa sure as heck blessed me this Christmas. The snapping fingers, the sketch by far those are my favorites. Everything else...icing on the cake.

Labels: Birthday, Christmas, family

Posted by @ 1:22 AM
4 comment from:  christina/ohio,  Anonymous,  Mia,  2 Second Club ®,