Coyote Christmas

We put our Christmas tree up today and this evening as Jeff was wrapping it in lights I decided to take Serif to the nursery and read him a book. I've read a lot of his books to him and was looking for something I haven't read to him yet. At the end of the top shelf was a Christmas book that seemed to catch my eye and it was titled 'Coyote Christmas'. We've had the book for years, but haven't really read it in . . . well I can't even remember. Somehow it managed to hang around with us move after move . . . all over Cincinnati to Tennessee. I remembered it being a gift, but that was about it. Well, as I opened the book to begin to read I saw a note hand written just inside the front cover. As I began to read it my eyes welted up with tears in both sadness and joy. Here's what is says,

12-25-96

Jeff,
I love this book! I love the story and I love the artwork. It's one that just sticks in my mind and I've read it over and over. I tried real hard to keep it but it kept saying "I'm Jeff's". I hope you will enjoy it as much as I have and read and re-read it every Christmas. If and when you have children, read it to them, remind them of the truths in here (and always let them know MiMi loves them very much!) I love you Jeff. Merry Christmas.
Love,
Your other mother,
Versal

For those of you who don't know who Versal is, it's my mom. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1989 and died in 1998. She was a young 47 years old. Wow, that's been 10 years already! She had many up times as well as down times throughout those years. It would go away, then come back, then go away, etc. I don't remember what 1996 Christmas was like for her, whether it was an up time or down time, but it was Christmas and the time for giving and she gave up this wonderful little book with the most valuable message from her that we could never even imagine. Ya know, I don't know that we've always appreciated this book to the extent that we should have. I do remember reading it at Christmas, but probably not every one. However, now more than ever it hits a deeper part of us and makes us appreciate it that much more. i think it will be the first one off the shelf every Christmas for Serif.

I hate that Serif misses out on her but I still think about Jeff's earlier post of the possible thought of them meeting before. I'd like to think that could be a very real possibilty. This brings me to one other thought. My cousin Tresie told me about a dream that her mother, Fallie, had right around the the time Serif was born. She said that she dreamt of Versal and she was so happy and jumping up and down and hollering and was SO excited! She said she'd never seen her so excited before, but she was ecstatic about something! She said it was so real and such a happy dream. Could it be that Fallie was seeing my moms reaction to the birth of our son? Do you think she was watching down on us and rejoicing with us even though we can no longer see her? I don't know the real answer of course, but it's fun to think about and I don't think there's harm in entertaining the idea.

Boy I miss her.
-Michelle