The Mother’s Day Card My Mother Saved
I made this Mother’s Day card for my mother when I was in the first grade. I remember these school projects, when we would create something for our parents to bring home on the major holidays. With folded paper, simple decorations and our own handwriting, we did our best to make something special.
The cover is decorated with green crayon flourishes, small pink dots and a sticker depicting the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The pages were fastened together with staples, creating a small handmade booklet. These details preserve the materials and methods we used for classroom projects at that time.
Inside I wrote:
“Dear Mother,
Happy Mother day
I Love you. I am good in school.
You are pretty Mother.
I know you love me and I love you.
Love,
Nancy”
I do not remember making this card or giving it to my mother. What I know is that she saved it. Through all the years and everything else that passed through our family’s life, this small first-grade creation remained among the things she considered worth keeping.
Today, I can see my early handwriting and read the words exactly as I wrote them. The card preserves a moment from my childhood that I might otherwise have forgotten. It also reminds me of a familiar school tradition and the handmade gifts that children proudly carried home to their parents.
What began as a first-grade Mother’s Day project became part of the record my mother left behind. I wrote the message, but she preserved it, allowing my childhood words to find their way back to me all these years later.
Read More From Nancy
Still Believing, but Beginning to Question
I was nine years old and in the third grade when I wrote this letter to Santa Claus. I began politely, thanking him for the presents he had given me the year before. I told him that school was a little harder that year but assured him that I did not mind very much. I also introduced […]
Summer at Camp Bernadette — Wolfeboro, New Hampshire
During my elementary school years, I spent the month of July at Camp Bernadette, a sleepaway camp for girls in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. I loved going to camp because it gave me opportunities that I did not have at home. I could try archery, boating, horseback riding, riflery, swimming and many other activities. For a […]
Given a Name
Only a few pages in my baby book were completed, but this was one of them. My mother may not have recorded every childhood milestone, yet she made certain to preserve some of the details of the day I was baptized. She wrote my full name in her beautiful handwriting: Nancy Jean Watson. The ceremony […]
