by Shelley Bennett
I have to be real for a moment. We’re six months into 2026 and it hasn’t been the best! year! ever! that I hoped for on December 31st. In fact, it’s kind of been the worst mixed in with the kindest, sweetest, most incredible acts and words shared by family and friends.
I have tried so many times in the past few months to just write. To simply choose the right words and put them on the screen and hopefully make some kind of sense.
If I can just get a cohesive paragraph out, maybe it will lift the writer’s block that has plagued me since my mom passed away on February 2nd.
I think I’ll start with a funny story about my mom. One that I forgot to tell at her celebration of life.
On December 10, 2024 my mom was hospitalized at Renown Medical Center with a brain bleed. My brother, sister, husband Leo, and I had gathered with my dad that day in hopes of hearing some positive news about her recovery.
My mom was a little loopy, but she was communicating pretty well and she enjoyed hearing about what the kids were up to. I told her that Sofia was in the middle of finals and would be home soon, Jake was busy at NST, and Landon had completed a round of applications to PT school.
After lunch, she was getting tired and hungry and impatient with all the waiting. She couldn’t think of a word and it was frustrating her immensely.
My sister asked if she could write it and she tried! A long, uneven line of the letter “B” repeated over and over. So we started guessing. Banana?! Bicycle?! Beanstalk?! Each guess was met with a disgusted shake of her head. Clearly, we were failing her.
(Dear Reader, my brother will probably fact check me on the words she was guessing. And he’ll be correct. I don’t remember the exact words. I’m using some creative licensing here.)
Finally mom blurted out, very clearly and loudly: bayberry! Laugher filled the room as Alison assured her that the bayberry candles she gave out every year at Christmastime had been ordered and would be here any day.
My mom loved traditions, and this one, passed on by my Aunt Shirley, was one of her favorites. Legend goes that a bayberry candle burned “down to its socket, brings joy to the home and gold to the pocket.”
At the time, it was more than a word. It was a sign for me that my mom was going to be ok. She was going to get out of the hospital and come home. Maybe not in time for Christmas or even New Years, but she would make it.
It also gave our whole family a reminder of what was really important over the holidays. The best gift that year was visiting my mom in the rehab center on Christmas day and completing a puzzle together in the family room.
Looking back, I’m so grateful for that year. We didn’t know that it would be our “lasts” with mom, but because of what happened in December, we didn’t take those moments for granted either.
Remember when news was ‘newsy’? When you read about weddings, family events and engagement announcements in the newspaper? If you have something that might be newsworthy, please submit it to [email protected] and I’ll do my best to include it here in “The Good Stuff.”
