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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS (Don't write about the song) (04/16/15)

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• TITLE: Always Something To Be Thankful For | Previous Challenge Entry
  By Ingrid Forsberg
  04/16/15
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It was the Christmas season. My father was gone. He passed away the summer before. I had one sister in the east, another in the Midwest, a brother in California and I was off living by myself in another state hundreds and hundreds of miles away from any and all family. My mother and her little dog lived alone a dozen miles or so from my brother.

My friends all loved my mother. Even though I was living far away they would visit mother or just call her on the phone to say hi. Her hearing was not the best. Once a friend called and asked mother how her health was. My mother thought she was asking about her house so she said, “Oh, I had it painted white inside and out.” She always wanted a white house and my father wasn’t around to object. He had the house painted brown inside and out once 30 or more years previously and figured it didn’t need more paint.

No one realized at the time this would be my mother’s last Christmas season. Joanne, another friend of mine, called my mother to say “Hello” and “Merry Christmas.” That’s when she found out my mother planned on going to some after Christmas sales so she could get some warm flannel pajamas. Joanne called my sister-in-law to suggest she get my mother flannel pajamas for Christmas. No. My sister-in-law wasn’t going to do that because she already bought my mother’s Christmas present at a garage sale. This made Joanne angry so she bought mother another Christmas present, flannel pajamas. My sister-in-law called my mother and told her not to wait for the sales but to go get herself some flannel pajamas. Mother bought two pair. Two of my nieces (from different families) found out about my mother, the pajamas, and my sister-in-law. They went out and bought bathrobes and more flannel sleepwear. My mother’s last winter was a warm one in a white house.

Mother’s last Christmas Eve was spent at my brother’s house, but Christmas day she and her little dog were home alone. Rather than feeling sorry for herself or being in a snit at being alone on Christmas day she wrote something my brother found after she passed away the following summer. She recalled how she had experienced so many wonderful Christmas times. Mother talked about being thankful even then for all God’s blessings. She was alone. She didn’t receive a phone call from any of her four children that Christmas day. Not even one phone call! Mother didn’t get upset. She chose to keep her mind on happy things and be thankful. This made her a beautiful person, delightful to be with. No wonder my friends loved her.

Mother has been gone over 17 years now. I still miss her. What I learned from her that makes a daily difference in my life is there is always something to be thankful for.

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