HSMSHS - Heart

My Mother's Heart

My mother was born with a crossed eye in a time when there was only two surgeons in the United States who preformed surgery to correct the problem. She was put in glasses at the tender age of 18 months in order to gain some semblance of vision.

It wasn't until she was five that there was enough money (no insurance or public assistance in the 1930's) to acquire the necessary surgery to correct the eye. My mother and my grandmother traveled to one of the Carolina's by train. On the trip, my grandmother presented my mother with this sterling silver heart necklace. It was a token of strength to help her face what was ahead of her.

When I was around eight I was rummaging through my mother's jewelry box and found the necklace. It was then I learned the story of my mother's trip on the train to the strange land where the Dr. would change the way she saw her world. She was forever grateful to this man who gave her what sight she had in her right eye. And some thirty years later she still had the heart her mother had given her.

She gave me her treasure that day. I put it around my neck and wore it for years. It gave me strength and courage in times when I needed it. Today the HSMSHS prompt is Heart and some nearly forty years after she gave it to me, I still have my mother's heart....the one on the chain and the one I carry in my own heart.