Dear Ann Landers I found a yellowed clipping from one of your columns printed in 1966. I hope you will print this letter again. — Frustrated Grandma in Fort Lauderdale
Dear Grandma: Here it is:
Dear Ann Landers: Today is my mother’s birthday. For the first time since I was a little girl, I cannot give her a gift.
After I married, we lived only a mile apart. I always managed to run in and drop off a present I had picked up at the last minute. No matter what it was, she’d smile and say, “You knew exactly what I wanted, didn’t you, dear?”
Then I’d head for the door, and she would sigh, “I wish you could sit down and visit for a little while. You are always in such a hurry.” My stock answer was, “I wish I could, Mom, and I will, one of these days I we’ll have a really good visit, but today, I have so many things to do, I must get going.”
“One of these days” will never come because Mom passed away last week. For the very first time in her wonderful, unselfish life, she was the one who didn’t have time for me.
Time has a sneaky way of slipping away. We all get so involved in our own little worlds, and before you know it, the tomorrows are yesterdays. If I can encourage just one person to stop, no matter how busy, and find an hour to visit his or her mother, it will be the best gift I could give my mom. — I’ll Miss Her Forever
Dear Ann Landers: Today is Mother’s Day, and I hope you will print this essay my daughter sent to me. — Mary in Minnesota
Dear Mary: Thanks for sending it on:
Only A Mother
Only a mother:
Can listen to the same knock-knock joke 27 times without hollering, “Nobody’s home!”
Will unwind 56 feet of toilet paper so her little darling can have the empty roll to make her a Mother’s Day present.
Sees a Picasso in the scribbles decorating the refrigerator.
Has a bathtub filled with yellow duckies.
Will notice that there are only four pieces of pie for five people and promptly announce that she never did care for pie.
Write to Ann Landers, P.O. Box 11562, Chicago, IL 60611-0562.
