Some of you who know me, know that help raised my nephew, therefore tis story is one that is truly from the heart.
A TIFFANY’S MOTHER DAY
“Happy Mother’s Day!” the nephew said beaming ear to ear, as he placed the light-Turquoise colored gift bag on the table.
The auntie’s eyes grew wide with surprise as she observed the highly recognizable jewelry store bag. No this boy had not gone to THE Tiffany & Co for a Mother’s Day gift!! How could he afford Tiffany’s when he still owed her $100.00 for two past months on his cell phone bill, she mused to herself. Although she had yet to ever make a purchase, she on the mailing list and knew the catalog from front to back. There was nothing in there less than the amount of his past due cell phone bill which she had already paid.
Nonetheless, there it was, the cute little bag whose brand recognition alone caused a women to smile and giggle before even seeing the contents. But that was the nephew for you, top shelf all the way. He was a full-time college student with two part-time jobs, barely had beer money, yet he had Champagne tastes. Bless his heart. He had come a long way- the nephew had.
Aunti was flooded with emotions, as her mind floated back fourteen years, to when he was nine years old. It was then that he first began permanently living with them. His mother had gone back to college in a neighboring town leaving the nephew with his grandparents. It was only natural that he’d preferred staying at the auntie’s house as she was younger and had his little cousins for him to play with like siblings. They’d jokingly referred to the nephew as ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ after the Wil Smith character, who also lived with his aunt’s family. Plus, like Uncle Phil on the t.v. show, there was no one in the world who adored the nephew more than did his uncle. From football practices, to games, to school events, there was never an event the uncle wasn’t front and center, even the many times the nephew’s own father wasn’t there.
Auntie remembered with pain the many conversations she’d had over the years with the nephew, particularly on weekends when his mother couldn’t make it to town to visit him, but had been able to make it a hundred miles further away to spend time with her then boyfriend. His father was a consistent ‘no show’ so many times, one would have thought the child would have caught on. Yet he waited at the door like an excited puppy, every time his dad promised and had been surprisingly disappointed each ‘no show’ time.
“Why don’t either of my parents make time for me like other parent’s do for their kids?” he'd often asked. “It’s not fair,” he’d cried, through so many tears it broke auntie’s heart to see him suffer.
“It doesn’t matter,” the auntie had told him, trying to console him. “There are so many kids that for whatever reason don’t have their birth parents taking care of them and they have NO ONE to stand in the gap. God blessed you though. You have us. You have grandparents. And you have lots of extended family and friends that love and support you. Stop looking at what you don’t have and focus on all the blessings that you DO have,” she’d told him.
She now snickered when she’d thought about his fifth grade year, the first time he’d been suspended from school. The principal had called her to the school because the nephew had been caught playing with a gun with some of the kids on the play ground. It turned out that the gun hadn’t been real. But the principal’s concern was that because it LOOKED real, the student’s should have been afraid of it. Explaining his rationale for the nephew’s 3-day suspension from school, the principal said he expected better from the nephew. He expected him to be one of the leaders, not a follower.
That night at the dinner table, the auntie had questioned the nephew on what he had been thinking to do something so potentially dangerous. The nephew’s excuse was that all the other boys were doing it.
“All the other boys were doing it?” the auntie had asked in disbelief. “If all your friends decided to go to hell, do you plan to go too?” she asked trying to make the child think.
“I…. I…..,” he stammered. “I just don’t want to be alone,” he answered honestly.
His candid reply scared auntie. She loved this child as much as she loved her own and she knew that his desire to fit in outweighing common sense, could be a dangerous thing. She knew she had her work with him cut out for her. She was determined to help keep her only nephew on the straight and narrow.
Over the next years, all the way through high school graduation, she had been the nephew’s constant warden /cheerleader. She’d kept steady monitoring on his friends, his grades, and his comings & goings. She knew that she undoubtedly bored the child to death with her life lessons, fables and proverbs. Often times, she’d prayed more prayers for the nephew than she’d prayed for her own children because his need was greater.
The years went by and the nephew
finished elementary school
went off to boarding high-school
graduated and then went on to college,
all the time coming home to his very own room at auntie’s house. His parent’s showed up when they pleased. (which it seemed to please them most during spotlight times- (times when they could say, on the accolades of the child, “Yes, this is MY son.”)
But the auntie and uncle remained constant. Always there, always available for whatever was needed, whenever it was needed, however it was needed, just as if the nephew had been their own son.
“Well??? Aren’t you going to open it?” the nephew asked with excitement, tapping the Tiffany gift bag he’d set on the table.
Auntie watched with amazement as her sister ooh’ed and awe’d at the Mother’s Day gift her son had just presented to her. It was a gift the auntie was just realizing that she’d help pay for.
“Happy Mother’s Day auntie,” he’d said both off-handedly and empty-handedly to the aunt. He watched with anticipation, as his mother opened the lavish gift of a silver necklace with the word MOM engraved on a heart-shaped charm. He didn’t even have a card for his aunt.
“Can you believe my son bought me this?” the mother asked gleefully holding up the silver necklace to show the aunt.
The auntie tried forcing a smile to contain her hurt. Other than for him to be okay, she’d never wanted nor expected anything from the nephew. But to be just a mere after-thought on Mother’s Day when he had been a ‘fore-thought’ in auntie’s life, required a special kind of self-less, sainthood that auntie did not possess. This hurt. It hurt deep.
The nephew no longer needed his auntie like he had when he was younger. He no longer had the questions of WHY he wasn’t first and foremost in his parents’ lives.
For a couple of Benjamins and light-turquoise colored bag….. he could buy his way there.
© June 2011 by Stacey Lynne Lewis as SoulofaPoet. All Rights Reserved
MCN: CFGWX-VM4H4-ASXEP © copyright Wed Jun 22 02:31:28 UTC 2011 - All Rights Reserved
