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Something to Remember Me By Legacy Project
2003 Mother's Day
Keepsake Story Contest
Second Prize Winners
There are 3 Second Prizes
from Lane and Books Are Fun
  
Each second-prize winner receives
the Lane Something to Remember Me By Cedar Chest
AND a $200 book gift certificate from Books Are Fun.
Books Are Fun, a Reader's Digest Company, is the leading
display marketer of the finest adult and children's books.
It is proud to be a partner in nearly 65,000 schools across
North America. The dynamic school program offers
high quality, deeply discounted books, gift items, and
supplemental educational materials. This partnership
allows schools to earn free books and educational
materials for their libraries and classrooms.
To learn more, visit www.booksarefun.com
Second Prize winners also receive a gold-framed,
matted keepsake award certificate from Intercraft
and a specially autographed copy of
Something to Remember Me By,
a great gift book about love and legacies for
children, grandchildren, parents, and grandparents --
and the book that inspired the national Legacy Project
Winners also receive a one year subscription to Reminisce.
Reminisce (a Reader's Digest publication) is the country's most
popular nostalgia magazine -- it "brings back the good times."
The true-life stories are written by the readers,
not professional writers, which makes this magazine unique.
Heartfelt memories and stories provoke smiles, laughter, and the
occasional tear. The pages of Reminisce are also packed with
fascinating vintage photos supplied by readers who hunt through
albums and attics to share these precious gems from the past.
Readers say that sitting down with an issue of Reminisce
is like chatting with friends over a cup of coffee.
The ad-free magazine also offers schools a valuable way
to bring history alive for students with
personal reminiscences and real-life photographs.
For sample articles and subscription information,
visit www.reminisce.com or call 1-800-344-6913
Congratulations to all the Second Prize Winners...
Marilyn Hull, 55, Toledo, OH:
Words. There are few of them now. Those I hear are often softly mumbled, or flow in unintelligible streams from a mind that once had many lovely thoughts to think and a mouth that wants to utter sweet...
Words. Sometimes, Mom sees me through the fog of her dementia and asks, "What is your name?" I tell her, although it doesn't matter because she just wants to say, "I like you!" She no longer recognizes me, but it is so good to hear those loving...
Words. These are my mother's legacy: written thoughts; inspired words. She delighted in them and wrote, "It is likely many of us have trouble putting our thoughts on paper or in spoken words. Likely we use too many words... there is such an abundance!" From the treasury of her written expression, I have been privileged to learn who she was and who she hoped to become on her life journey because she used just the right...
Words. I find them on bits of paper or written in the margins of her books. She noted, "Wonderful dancer!" next to a name on her senior prom dance card; copied whimsical love poems on the covers of her college poetry book; and added her thoughtful commentaries next to favorite passages in her childhood Bible. In her 1936 handwritten autobiography, she professed a "great admiration for Ralph Waldo Emerson" (a source of words which inspired her); and about growing up she wrote, "I'll be walking along unconcerned and CRASH -- I hear another illusion shatter!" She concluded: "I sincerely hope that I shall be able to make my life worthwhile to myself and those affected by it." Mom, you surely succeeded because I have been blessed by your extraordinary...
Words.
Kathy A. Smith, 34, Jefferson City, MO:
My keepsake has a wonderful story to tell. It comes from one of the many lunches my mother made every morning. I remember unwrapping my peanut butter and jelly sandwich one afternoon to find a small note in the shape of a heart cut out of scrap paper with the words "Love You -- Mom" on it.
I lost my mother to a three-year battle to cancer when I was 17. That note has meant the world to me. I keep it in my wallet between two pictures. I have referred to it many times in my life: my high school graduation, my first day of college, my wedding day, when I found out I was pregnant with my first child and even recently when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. It gives me strength and reminds me of a woman who always had the time to do "the little things" we often forget about these days. It reminds me of the kind of mother I want to be.
This piece of paper would never fill a cedar chest nor will it hold any meaning for either of my children. But, I hope, I will be able to pass along to my children the knowledge of being loved from "the little things" that I do.
Pam Jefferson, 50, Carthage, IL:
A dollar bill. Not much of a legacy for a mother to leave, some would say. But they don't know this dollar bill's story... the dollar bill.
In 1918 when Mom was nine, the Model T in which her Papa was riding crashed and he was killed. In his wallet were three dollar bills. The three oldest children were each given a dollar to remember their Papa by.
Over the years the other two spent theirs, but not Mom. She carried it, folded carefully, in her billfold. It went with her from her childhood home in southern Georgia to Chicago and later to their downstate farm. She clutched it to her heart when the Depression came and times were hard. Often she could have used the dollar to buy food for her growing family. Her brother offered her $500 for it. But the memories of her Papa came back to her, and she kept the dollar safely tucked away.
Many times she took the dollar out to show family and friends and tell its story. Always a far away look would come to her eyes, as if by holding the dollar it kept her connected to her Papa.
Years passed. Mom's health failed. One day when I visited her she asked me to get her billfold. Ever so carefully she took out the worn dollar, handed it to me, and said, "I won't be around much longer. You're the youngest of my eight children. I want you to have this. Don't spend it."
The dollar... tattered, faded, larger than a regular dollar. In place of Washington, an eagle, and below that, pictures of Lincoln and Grant. Now I display it proudly on my hutch. Not much of a legacy for a mother to leave? I would have to disagree.
Read the Third Prize Winners
Go to Grand Prize Winner
Go to the main page for the Something to Remember Me By Legacy Project
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