Seventeen years ago my husband's family home flooded. His mother had kept some of his childhood treasures in the basement along with some things that wouldn't fit in our tiny apartment. Among those treasures was his baseball card collection. He was devastated, and feeling so bad for him, I tried to clean up a few favorites to no avail.
While Avery was sick he began to get serious about baseball card collecting. He would read the cards of his favorite players and organize them into binders. It was a way to connect to the sport he had so loved to play, and it made the hours indoors pass easier for my very outdoors boy.
On New Year's weekend my parents made a very special delivery. A childhood friend, Julie, had contacted me about giving Avery some baseball cards that had belonged to a family member. She had given him a bin full soon after his diagnosis, and wondered if he would like the rest of the collection. I didn't mention anything to Avery or hubby, and guessed that the cards would arrive in another bin for them to sort together.
I definitely didn't expect this:
This is about 1/20 of the pile!
The cards filled the trunk of my parents car!
As we moved the cards from the garage to the upstairs bedroom my hubby started to get a little choked up. On the ends of the boxes there were handwritten dates. The dates corresponded to the dates of the cards he had lost in the flood. Baseball cards he would have passed down to his son.
These cards held special memories of Julie's family member, and it was an amazingly generous and thoughtful gift from her family to mine. Sometimes you just know a gift is so great there is no way to say thank you, and sometimes there are friends so special that after years and years apart they still find a way to touch your heart.
Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!
