For One More Day

Several years ago I was called to jury duty and I brought a book in along with my car keys. These were the only things you were allowed to bring in.

I finished the whole book waiting to be called in. And it touched me in places that I have never been touched before.

But, there were places it didn't touch because those places weren't there yet.

We had an estate sale at my parents house last weekend. My daughter was in charge of gathering up stuff from our house to sell at the same time and one of the things she brought was the book.

I saw it laying amongst the stuff we were spreading out on tables and I grabbed it up.

"I don't want to sell this."

The book is called "For One More Day" by the author Mitch Albom.

It is a story about regret and the chance to right a wrong.

It is the story about a man who didn't fully appreciate what he had until he no longer had it.

It is the story about the love of a mother.

One line says, "...I realized when you look at your mother, you are looking at the purest love you will ever know."

The last time I saw my Mother she was sitting in a wheelchair at St. Pat's hospital in Lake Charles, Louisiana. She looked frail and tired and was on her way to dialysis.

I bent down and hugged her one last time and told her "I love you SO much."

And I walked away in the arms of my son, weeping because I knew it was goodbye. Not the last time I would speak to her, but the last time those arms that had held me countless times over the course of my life would ever hold me again.

A few days later I was in my office when my husband came in and closed the door.

"Your Mom is gone."

And suddenly I went from being the spoiled baby of loving parents to a grown woman with no parents at all.

Nothing has ever been the same.

Every day there is something I want to tell her. Every day there is something I want her to tell me.

Just for one more moment, one more hour, one more day.

There are so many things I want to make sure she knew.

She was a good mother. The best mother in the world. I can say that with all certainty because I know she loved us with all that she was. She would be the first one to tell you she wasn't perfect, but that is to be expected.

I can still hear her laughter echo in my heart, and her belief in who I am and what I was capable of was so strong it held me up at times. She was honest with me, more honest than anyone else has ever been. She had no problem telling me I was making a mistake and although some would resent that, I suppose, I needed that honesty knowing only someone who truly loved you would be that honest with you.

It has been 13 months since I last saw her face. 13 months since I heard her voice or felt her embrace.

What I would give for one more day.........