In 1967, we built a new home. My mother died a few weeks before we moved in August. I found out that we were expecting a new baby shortly after that. This would make number four and there were seven years between this one and the last. I had long since given away and gotten rid of any baby things that I had.

After we had lived in our new house for about two months, I began wishing that I had some of Mother's little booties that she'd always made for all the babies. They were pretty little things that she put tissue in and they stood up so nice when she gave them as a gift. They had tiny little pompoms on them. Mother always made mint green, yellow or white if she gave them before the baby was born as we didn't know if the child would be a boy or a girl thirty-five years ago.

One day, I went into the linen closet in the hall. On the middle shelf, right at the edge where it would catch my eye, was a little pair of mint green booties, complete with tissue paper.

I asked my sister-in-law about it as she had helped put things away, but there had been no booties then. Mother had surely come and put the little things there so I would know that all was well. It was a very sad time as I couldn't share things with her about the new house and the baby and I always felt like she wanted me to know that she already knew all this.