“Bye honey! I love you! God bless you! Have a great day! Bye!” Elizabeth called after her daughter as she jumped out of the van.
“Bye mama!” Emily quickly called back before running to catch up with one of her first grade classmates.
Elizabeth followed the line of cars out of the drop zone and caught one last glimpse of her daughter in the rearview mirror before she disappeared into the school building.
She had a sudden urge to turn the car around, jump out of the van and run after her. She’d sweep her up and bring Emily back home with her forever. At home they would make delicious whole wheat chocolate chip pancakes together and eat them with sliced bananas and maple syrup drizzled over the top. While they ate, Elizabeth would read aloud from The Secret Garden or The Little Princess, cultivating beautiful seeds of loveliness and mystery in the soil of Emily’s rich imagination.
After breakfast, Emily and Elizabeth would get out their paints and canvases and sit in their wildflower garden outside on the windless and warm sunny day and they would paint beautiful gardens on their own canvases. Elizabeth would whisper to Emily not to look now but that she was pretty sure she saw a little fairy in the lilac bush spying on their work. At this her wide-eyed daughter would carefully set down her paintbrush and slowly tiptoe around the yard looking for any sign of a fairy.
While Emily chased imaginary fairies, Elizabeth would go inside and get Emily’s favorite blueberry muffins and lemonade she’d made the night before and bring them out with a blanket and the library books they’d borrowed after yesterday’s story time. Emily would giggle with delight and help her mama spread out the blanket and pick out which book to read first. Then Elizabeth would work on some of the laundry while Emily played with her math manipulatives and phonics sound pouches her mama had made her. After this was done, they’d pack a healthy and light lunch into a pretty picnic basket and hop on their bikes for a ride to the nature center down the road. They’d walk along the paths, Elizabeth following closely behind Emily as she led them on their adventure through the mysterious forest, stopping every now and then to listen to the robins in their nests or the woodpeckers high in the trees. They’d spot and identify animal tracks, plants, bugs and other marvels of God’s creation living wildly and free in their grassland and forested habitats.
On their way home, they’d swing by and visit Jesus in the perpetual Eucharistic Adoration chapel of their church and or pray a rosary before an afternoon snack before dinner. While Elizabeth prepared dinner, Emily would get out her writing pad and pencil and write a story about their day with pictures to remember it by. Then she’d clean off and set the table for dinner. Before her daddy came home and their day together ended, Emily would give her mama a big bear hug with an extra kiss and say, “I love you, mama”. And Elizabeth would smile and look deeply into her daughter’s sweet loving eyes and respond right back, “I love you too, my beautiful Emily.”
