Is anyone else excited for Mother's Day? 'Cause you don't need to be a mama to get excited for it!
I'm in the process of helping Dad out with Mom's gift. If you all promise not to spill my secrets, I'll tell you the story. Pull up your chairs and buckets!
Several years ago, Mom took a trip to California to visit her oldest sister, Kika. She had cancer and it was quickly becoming apparent that it wasn't going to end well. Mama was just a young teacher back then, just getting a grip on her student loans, so she didn't have much money. My other aunts and uncles were visiting Kika all the time, taking flights once every other week to visit and take care of her. Mom couldn't do that, but she made the effort to visit once.
Mom was afraid of flying. Heck, Mom was afraid of leaving the Rio Grande Valley. The idea was terrifying to her, but she got on that plane with Grandma and they were off, ready to visit one of the most influential people of her life. Mom took care of Kika for a week before returning home.
Kika was very important to Mom. She was the one who worked several jobs to make ends meet and to send her siblings to school. She wanted Mom to become something, so she made sure Mom did well in school. She made sure Mom, the youngest child in the family, went to college. Mom always said that Kika wouldn't let her quit her job at Whataburger because if she did, she'd be quitting on school and her entire future. Now, Mom has been an English teacher for 28 years and she thinks she still have at least 10 more years left on her before she has to retire. Students still come to visit her from 20 years ago, bringing along their kids to meet the woman who will have taught English to not one, but two generations of their family.
In lieu of Mother's Day, Dad found all his old video tapes. Unfortunately, the old video camera that Dad had used to record all these home videos was disposed of more than ten years ago. So I had been searching for a video camera, still-working, that we could use to view these tapes. And I finally found one!
After purchasing some software that will rip the video from the tape and put it on a DVD, I've begun to edit all the footage. The problem is that I have to hold down the play button on the camera as the entire tape plays through, allowing the computer to record everything it sees. There are 20 tapes, 10 of which have footage of Kika and Grandma, the two most influential people in Mom's life. I have to capture every moment and put it in a single video that Mom can view. The thing is, this isn't just a Mother's Day gift. This is a gift for Mom's entire family to see.
We're gonna have quite a cry-fest on Mother's Day, I'll tell you that!
Wow. That's an amazing gift. I can tell you, as a mom, nothing could possibly beat it. You honour her past, the important people in her life, and you turn that into something that future generations will be able to see and feel and know her through. A legacy gift.
you make it funny when you start pointing out grammatical and punctuation errors, I hadn't noticed until you pointed out.
