When my first marriage ended I took a leap of faith. Translated that means I didn’t sign an apartment lease but rather asked if my mother would rent me my old bedroom until I decided what my plan of real action would be. It wasn’t ideal as she treated me as if I was 16 so it took a while before I embraced her thrill for the chance to “mother” me once again. Looking back, I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.

She had redecorated the bedroom I had when I was growing up and it wasn’t long before I asked for her permission to tone things down a bit. Every corner of the room vividly displayed splashes of incredibly vivid pink. There were pink curtains, a pink comforter, a pink chair, pink throw rugs and pink pillows. When the sun shine rolled through the windows at sundown it even looked as if the walls were pink. Long story short, it had to go. I decided on a nice shade of taupe for the walls and accented with shades of brown and slate blue and once everything was finished it became the tranquil place I needed at the end of the 12 hour days I was working. I remember the day when I decided to wash the sheets. As I was stripping the bed I found several blankets and a comforter under the sheet used to add a bit of padding to the worn mattress they were covering. This wasn’t anything I hadn’t seen before as we always had to make things last as long as possible. Money was never in abundance when I was growing up so a mattress that could be “padded” surely didn’t need to be replaced. Like I said, this wasn’t anything I hadn’t seen before, however, as I rolled the blankets away I saw something I didn’t understand.

My curiosity got the better of me so I asked mom about what I saw and this is the story that followed once my question was asked. “Well Bev, years ago when your sister went to work at the post office I babysat with April.” April is my sister’s youngest daughter and my Goddaughter. “She was so fun to have around and never the slightest bit of trouble. We would play and make bread dough and cookies and one day I taught her how to sew with a needle and thread. She was young but so smart and it wasn’t long before she knew just exactly how to thread that needle and weave it in and out of fabric. I remember the day what you’re questioning happened. I got busy in the kitchen and all of a sudden I realized April had been awfully quiet. I called out for her and it didn’t take long for me to realize she was in my bedroom with the door shut. I asked her what she was doing and when she said she was just playing I knew she was fine. She didn’t make any messes and she was such a good girl so I knew I didn’t need to be worried. Eventually she came out of my bedroom and when I got the chance I took a peek in there and everything seemed fine. We went about the rest of our day before her mom picked her up and it wasn’t until bedtime that I realized what she was doing in my bedroom earlier that day. At first I was confused because as I went to pull the covers back on my bed I was met with a bit of resistance. I was confused, that is, until I did a quick inspection and learned that April had sewn my bed shut!”

When I was removing the blankets and comforter from beneath my sheet I noticed big long threads hanging from the ruffle on the comforter. There were a noticeable amount of them so I was curious as to why they were there. Now I know. My mom said, “I just didn’t have the heart to remove those strings as they always took me back to when April was a little girl and honestly, they were some of the best years of my life.”