Love Notes
From the time when each of my children started school, I packed their lunches. And in each lunch that I packed for them, I put a note, often written on a napkin. The note might be a thank-you for a special moment, a reminder of something we were happily looking forward to, or a bit of encouragement for a coming test or sporting event. In early grade school they loved their notes — they wrote something on them after school as a reply, and they even put notes in my lunches! But as the kids grew older they became self-conscious, and my older son, Marc, after being laughed at by his classmate for the notes, told me that he no longer needed my dailymissivesbut I continuedthe traditionuntil the day when he graduated.
Marc is now a successful doctor in Washington DC. Last November, Marc called me and asked me if he could stay with us for two months. It was six years since he began to work. This year his younger sister was leaving for college, his younger brother, Sam, will be a senior in high school. Sam, too, told me that he is too old for notes.But like his elder brother and sister, he willreceive those notes till the day he graduates.
I was especially excited and pleased to have Marc coming back home.
During those two months, I was still making lunch every day for his younger brother. Of course, I packed one for Marc, too, then he could have his lunch on the way back to his home. Imagine my surprise when I got a phone call from my 30-year-old son, Marc, complaining his lunch from his home. "Did I do something wrong? Aren't I still your kid? Don't you love me anymore, Mom?" were just a few of the questions he threw at me as I laughingly asked him what was wrong.
"My note, Mom," he answered. "Where's my note?"
— Adapted from Love Notes by Antoinette Kurita
*Vocabulary
complain: to say that you are unhappy or not satisfied
reminder: sth. that makes you remember sth./sb.
self-conscious: to know yourself and your action and thought well
