A GIFT FOR MOTHER'S DAY G3sr05

 5. A GIFT FOR MOTHER'S DAY

The family had just moved and the young woman was feeling a little melancholy on that Sunday in May. After all, it was Mother's Day—and 800 miles separated her from her parents in another state far away.

She had phoned her mother that morning to wish her a happy Mother's Day, and her mother had mentioned how colorful the yard was, now that spring had arrived. As they talked, the younger woman could almost smell the purple lilacs hanging on the big bush outside her parents' back door.

Later, when she mentioned to her husband how she missed those lilacs, he sat up from his chair. "I know where we can find all you want," he said. "Get the kids and come on."

So off they went, driving down the country roads on the kind of day only mid-May can produce: sparkling sunshine, clear blue skies and green grass and trees growing all around.

They stopped at the foot of a hill.

"Come with me," the man said. "Over that hill is an old cellar hole, part of somebody's farm of years ago, and there are lilacs all around it. The man who owns this land said I could come here anytime. I'm sure he won't mind if we pick a few lilacs."

Before they got halfway up the hill, the fragrance of the lilacs drifted down to them, and the children started running. Soon, the mother began running, too, until she reached the top.

There, far from view of passing cars were the tall bushes of beautiful purple lilacs. The young woman rushed up to the nearest bush and buried her face in the flowers, drinking in their fragrance and the memories it recalled.

While the man examined the cellar hole and tried to explain to the children what the house must have looked like, the woman drifted among the lilacs. Carefully, she chose a few blossoms here, a few more there. She was in no hurry. To her, each blossom was a rare and delicate treasure.

Finally, though, they returned to their car for the trip home. While the children chattered and the man drove, the woman sat smiling, surrounded by her flowers, a faraway look in her eyes.

When they were within three miles of home, she suddenly shouted to her husband, “Stop Stop right here!”

The man brought the car to a stop. Before he could ask her why, the woman was out of the car and hurrying up a nearby slope with the lilacs in her arms.

At the top of the hill was a nursing home. It was such a beautiful spring day that the patients were outdoors strolling with relatives or sitting on the porch.

The young woman went to the end of the porch. There an elderly patient was sitting in her wheelchair, alone, head bowed, her back to most of the others. Across the porch railing went the flowers, into the lap of the old woman. Surprised, she lifted her head, then a smile lit up her face.

For a few moments, the two women chatted, both glowing with happiness. Then the young woman turned and ran back to her family.

As the car pulled away, the woman in the wheelchair waved, and clutched the lilacs to her heart.

"Mom," the kids asked, "who was that woman? Why did you give her our flowers?"

The mother said nothing for a moment. "I don't know her, nor do I know who she is," the woman said softly. "But it's Mother's Day, and she seemed so alone." "Besides," she added, "I have all of you, and I still have my mother, even if she is far away. Just think how much those flowers meant to her."

Since then, every Mother's Day, the family gather bouquets of purple lilacs they have planted themselves. And every year they think of that smile on the lonely old woman's face, and the kindness that put the smile there.