One day in August, my mom invited me and my five siblings over to her and my dad’s house for dinner. As adults and having children of our own we had not been together since the holidays, which would have been Christmas nine months prior. My mom said she had a little surprise for each of us. As we sat down to dinner at the table, we each had a cup turned upside down in front of us. We lifted the cups to reveal a little smile underneath. This little smile touched our hearts because our mom gave them to us. We all loved the card that came with the smile that explained what Seeds of Happiness was all about. After dinner was over, we all went home with our little smiles. I put mine on my coffee pot to start each day with a smile. My brother put his smile on his nightstand and my sisters put them in various spots around their houses. 

My dad called in the middle of the night and said he was at the hospital with my mom. She had an aneurysm and passed away later that night. The smiles she gave us at that last dinner are so important to us and dear to our hearts because my mom gave them to us from the kindness in her heart. When my brother lost his Seed of Happiness smile somewhere in his house, all of us siblings got together and tore his house apart to find it. (It was under his couch.) 

I’m sharing this story because my dad wanted me to reach out to say thank you because these smiles are what we hold onto as a last memory of my mother and her kindness.