Dear Reader:

Mother’s Day came early yesterday and with surprises galore! Tommy had texted me and said he and Kailtyn were going to stop by for a little visit and were bringing lunch.

Around 10:30 Tommy showed up with a truckload of gorgeous out- door furniture for the deck and garden. It originally belonged to Susan and Butch, Kaitlyn’s parents who moved to Charleston over the Christmas holidays last year.

They have been downsizing and trying to clean out their storage compartments. I think John and Mandy’s new deck gave Kaitlyn the idea that Tommy could power-wash my deck for now to put her parents out-door patio furniture (which they have no place for) on.

There was a swing (love seat) and a table for two. Unbelievable! Tommy worked on the deck for  a couple of hours until Kaitlyn, Butch, and Susan arrived…with the most delicious meal…fried chicken, beans and rice, cold pasta salad, greens, Italian subs…it just went on and on with delicious homemade cookies for dessert.

*Later in the afternoon, after everyone was gone…I was able to capture this picture of the sun’s shadows falling on the steps and deck…amazing what water pressure can do to clean wooden planks…with a lot of help from a wonderful son!

And if that wasn’t enough…Susan had asked me earlier if I could use some bed sheets and quilts she wanted to get rid of since the move….So while Butch and I were still talking outside after lunch…Susan and Kailtyn changed my whole bed into a beautiful princess bed. Though I actually felt like Queen for a Day!

It was so overwhelming that I could hardly take it all in! “Thank you” sounds far too inadequate… but just know that all of you (Tommy, Kaitlyn, Butch, Susan) made me  feel truly special and loved beyond reason.

Another gift from Tommy and Kaitlyn was an historical quote poster…one of my favorites.

Abraham Lincoln often spoke of his “angel mother” and later people assumed he was talking about his biological mother who died when he was only nine. This quote and salutation, however, is directed at his stepmother.

‘She proved to be a good and kind mother’ to him. By all reports their relationship was excellent, and Mrs. Lincoln considered her stepson a model child who was always honest, witty, and ‘diligent for knowledge.’ He never needed a ‘cross word.’ In all the vast literature of controversy over Lincoln’s early years, there is  never an unkind word about Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln.

*Funny incident showing Sarah’s witty accepting sense of humor…a big influence on Lincoln in later years.

Lincoln’s legendary sense of humor was probably influenced by his stepmother. He recalled that she was a firm but kind-hearted woman who loved to laugh. When he was 18 years old, Lincoln, at 6′ 4″, was so tall that his head nearly touched the ceiling of the family’s farmhouse kitchen. His stepmother repeatedly joked that Lincoln was so tall that he needed to keep his hair washed or he’d leave prints on her ceiling.

Lincoln decided to have some fun with this idea. One day, when his stepmother was not home, Lincoln got together a group of younger boys and had them dip their bare feet in the mud outside the farmhouse kitchen. Then Lincoln took each of the boys inside, held them upside-down, and had them walk their feet across the ceiling, leaving muddy footprints. When Sarah Lincoln saw the muddy footprints on her ceiling, Lincoln recalled, she chuckled as she threatened to spank him playfully while tears of merriment ran down from her cheeks!

So until tomorrow…A personal shout-out to my mother who raised three children with no husband and one hand…the strongest woman I ever knew, loved, and revered! Happy Mother’s Day mother!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh