“if I could put time in a bottle”

I read a blog posted by Agent X on Fat Beggars School of Prophets, titled, Message in a Bottle this morning…and it started the wheels in my brain grinding. Then I read a message sent to me by a friend whose mother recently passed away. She was going to read a message I had sent at her mother’s funeral and asked if I could add something about her mother for her to read, she said it could be sad or funny…just something in memory of her sweet mom. 

Sadly, the message had come several days ago, and I missed it until this morning, so too late for the funeral but I sent her the message anyway… 

“…Your mom and dad were like movie stars to me! Glamor personified! The funny thing I remember is that your mom broke her little finger (that’s not funny) but she did it pulling up her girdle‼️‼️ (now that was funny 😂). I remember pulling into the driveway that beautiful home of your precious grandparents and seeing you three girls out there on skates! Beautiful girls and now beautiful and wonderful women. I love you and I am proud of my connection to your family. Did I ever tell you or Renee about what your sweetest grandmother did for me? I had an organ recital at an auditorium at Lenox Square. Ma was worried about what I was going to wear. She got a black dress for me and loaned her beautiful string of pearls for me to wear. I felt wonderful as I walked to that big Hammond and played in front of Graham Jackson (a famous organist in Atlanta at that time!) Thank you, Ma Byrd, for making me feel glamorous. I think I’m going to write a blog about that. 

Funny that I hadn’t thought of that moment in so many years, I was only 15 years old at the time and our family was beyond poor, so a new dress was out of the question but the music lessons? They were going to come no matter what my parents had to sacrifice to see that I had them. Thing about that is, I play so much by ear that my lessons were a farce. I would con my teacher into playing a tune for me the way it was supposed to sound, I simply copied that…thankfully my parents are in heaven and won’t get angry at that confession…they probably knew it anyway… right?

What that lady did for me as a young teen made me feel like a million dollars and the famed Mr. Jackson complimented me and said he’d never seen anyone play the organ pedals in high heels before. 

Do something wonderful for someone today, they may put it in their bottle of memories and pull it out as a wonderful memory on a day when they really need something pleasant to think about…like I did today.