The other day I found a note. The paper was folded many times and the edges were old and bit a tattered. I carefully unfolded it and began to read. It was written by one of my daughters many years ago and I was reminded how something so little – like writing a note – can bring so much joy.
It brought to mind the time I was rostered on to help make the school lunches at the canteen. Once a week I would turn up on a particular day and we would make umpteen salad rolls and sandwiches, and put dozens of pies and sausage rolls on to heat. It was always with a sense of anticipation that I searched through all the lunch orders for the one with my daughter’s name on it. Her orders were never just the regular ‘salad roll’. Instead it would read something like, ‘Most gracious, indulgent, loving, patient mother in the world, your most darlingest daughter desires a bread roll cut in half with a faint scraping of butter on both sides, followed by a slice of tomato on a sprinkling of shredded lettuce. This would be nice topped with a smattering of grated cheese and carrot. A slice of ham will do nicely on top of the vegetables…’ And of course I would reply by writing all over the wrapping of her salad roll, ‘Most darlingest daughter – please find encased beneath this wrapper…’ Once she wrote a rhyming poem that had the whole canteen in stitches of laughter. And one day, her teacher asked for the lunch wrapper so that she could photo copy my reply.
They were fun days – and memory creators. It’s never too late to create memories for those you love.
DJ
(c) DJ Stutley 2012
