How long do you hang on to greeting cards?  Some are so special that you might not ever throw them away?  How about cards from your husband?  How long do you keep them?  You don’t very well open them up, read them, “oh thank you honey” and then toss them in the trash right in front of him.  I think Jerry Seinfeld did an episode on this. I usually leave a card sitting out for a few days as a visual reminder to Rick that it meant something. He probably just chalks it up to my messiness.  I’m not sentimental.  Neither is he. 

The last card I got from my mother before she died was for Easter. When you opened it some animated character sang, “I want candy”.  I love candy.  Mom loved holidays. She sent cards for every occasion: Halloween, birthdays, Christmas, Easter, anniversaries.  She did holidays up right. Decorated the house. Had seasonal food. Bought presents. Wore thematic outfits.  Sent cards. The whole shebang. 

Until I was in my early twenties, I bought a special outfit for Easter. It’s what you did.  It was the start of the Spring season-you can now wear white. We wore new dresses with Easter bonnets and gloves to church on Easter Sunday. And then we’d come home to hunt for Easter eggs.  Mom went all out. None of those plastic Easter eggs with quarters in the middle.  For days before Easter she boiled real eggs and we would dye them with that smelly vinegar based dye. She and Dad hid them all over the yard.  On Easter morning we woke up to tremendous Easter baskets filled with candy, candy, and more candy. The Easter bunny was alive and well at our house.  Mom was an extravagant giver.  It’s how she showed her love.  

So, I had this Easter card that sang “I Want Candy.”  I kept it on the bulletin board in my study and every so often I would open it up and listen to the funny song and look at my mother’s beautiful signature.  I did this for five yeas. Every couple of months, I’d open it up and listen and feel happy. Then one day all it did was click. Click, click, click. I closed the card and reopended it just to be sure. Click, click, click. It was over. It was time. I tossed it.

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