Lori Novo: My Mother's Coat

All I Want
~ Kodaline ~

♪

"All I want is nothing more
To hear you knocking at my door
Cause if I could see your face once more..."

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Hello Beautiful World!

Earlier this morning, as I was going through my winter clothes in the closet, I came upon my mother's coat.

When I saw it I was overcome by a mixture of emotions, both happy and sad. You see, my mother

the last winter that she was with us, had given me her coat when I had visited her. It was a very cold winter

day and I was wearing just a sweater when I stopped by her house to check on her. When she saw me

she asked me why wasn't I wearing a jacket or a coat, I told her I didn't have either, so she turned

around and grabbed her coat that was by the door and gave it to me. I refused to accept it since I

knew that it was her favorite one and the only one she really liked to wear from all five she had but she kept insisting

that I take it. I told her that I would gladly accept any of her other coats but she insisted I take her favorite one.

She walked up to me and helped me put it on and said, "See, it looks so nice on you." and she smiled.

I felt how important it was for her that I accepted her favorite coat so I did.

Once I finished organizing my winter clothes and hanging my mother's coat in a section of its own

in my closet I felt the need to see my mother's face and her beautiful smile. I pulled out my photo albums and as I flipped through the pages, I noticed my mom wearing the coat in all the winter pictures I have of her. I know for a fact that my mother had at least four other coats that she never wore until after she had gifted me her so loved, favorite one.

You can say that she actually gave it to me right off her back, that is the wonderful kind of woman

my mother was. Every time I visited her or anyone else in fact, she would make sure we didn't leave empty-handed.

She always tried to find a gift, even if it was something as small as a pen or a pencil to give to

the people that visited her. I remember once she called me and asked me if I could go and put up some

curtains in her living room for her. When I asked her what had happened to the pretty ones she had up, she said

she had given them away to my aunt who had visited her and had said she liked them. On another occasion, during one of my visits to her I noticed she had a pile of her clothes neatly folded

on her kitchen table, when I asked her if she wanted me to put them away for her, she said she had them

there to give them to one of the neighbors that needed clothes to wear for her new job. My mother had

actually gone through her closet and selected the best pieces she had to help her neighbor out.

Now I got to tell you, my mother liked to dress up so nicely. Her clothes were so beautiful, every single

piece of them and she had a big collection of handbags and shoes. After she passed away, I got to keep

all her clothes. I gave away some to relatives who like me, loved her fashion taste. I had aunts and cousins and her friends asking me for the blue dress or the pink blouse with the butterflies, etc.

They all knew exactly what they wanted to keep to remember her by.

I do wear some of my mother's clothes now, but I have to tell you, they don't seem to look as good

on me as they did on her. Now I realized that it was never the clothes that were the beautiful ones, it was my mother that made them look beautiful. I miss her so much.

-Lori Novo

♥