All throughout my life, when considering the worst possible thing that could ever happen in my life, it always surrounded losing my mother. I can’t say that she and I always saw eye to eye. I can’t say that we did not have our fair share of disagreements. I can’t even say that we were always each other’s favorite person, but, I can tell you that – regardless of what ever happened throughout our lives – we loved each other with a deep, seemingly unending love. She was my mother. I was her daughter. The bond between a mother and her daughter, or, a daughter and her mother – depending on your perspective – is one of strength, thoughtfulness, caring, and immense love. Little did I know that something as simple as a fingerprint necklace would leave such a profound effect on me, my life, and would prove to signify just HOW much my mother loved and cared for me.

In the summer of 2011, something started changing with my mother. She seemed to eat less, sleep more. She still seemed to have her cravings for sweets, but, when it came to traditional meals, she would just pick at her plate. She began to lose weight. She started doing less and less in and around her home. She seemed to be burdened by an immense degree of fatigue. I shrugged it off. Actually, I pushed it to the back of my mind, purposely. I knew something was wrong. I immediately started denying it, though. This was my mother. She was the strongest person I have ever known. She was only 53 years old. Surely, she was not sick. If she was, surely, it was not serious….Boy, was I wrong.

By October of that same year, she had been admitted to a local hospital. As soon as I got word, I went to visit. When I walked in, I was in shock. In just a couple of days’ time, she looked as if she had aged by a couple of decades. I was beside myself. How could this be happening? At the time, the hospital did not know much about her condition. All we knew was that it seemed to be dire. To make a long story short, by November 4^th 2011, she was transferred to a highly-reputable hospital in a neighboring town. She had numerous surgeries and biopsies. It all ended with the family gathering by her bedside and her informing us that she had Stage 4 Cancer and they had given her three months to live….

“What?!?” was all I could say as I struggled to keep myself from collapsing to the ground at receiving this news. I remember my ears ringing, hearing my heart pounding, and feeling as if all of the happiness in the world had just been sucked out by her words….

Eventually, my mother was permitted to return home, with Hospice care. I served as her primary caregiver. I helped her drain the fluid from inside of her chest with a Pleur-X container. I changed her bandages. I helped her keep herself clean. I helped her take baths and wash her hair. I cleaned her house. I handled every little thing. The happiness seemed to never return. The world was just a complete void….The news of her impending and immediate death seemed to hang over me like an immense weight, slowly and seemingly, suffocating me.

At 54 years of age, on April 12th of 2012, my mother passed away. My sister and I were standing beside her, holding her hand, as she took her last breath in front of us. We sat by her bed for nearly two more hours before the funeral home arrived to take her away. (At that time, she was in the local Hospice center). 

Shortly after our mother was wheeled away by the funeral home, a nurse that had worked closely with our family came up to my sister and I with two small boxes. We were shocked to see that the handwriting on the tags was our mother’s. 

Each gift was wrapped and addressed to us. As we opened the boxes, we discovered that our mother had left each of us a customized thumbprint necklace. On each chain was a heart with a sample of our mother’s REAL thumbprint. Inside, we found a note that explained that she did this as soon as she heard that she had a short time to live. This was her final gift to us. She concluded the note by saying, “Now, you will know that I am always in your heart. I love you so much….”

My sister and I were stunned. We were surprised. We were sad. We were happy. It is so hard to truly describe what we felt, but, it was absolutely amazing that, through it all, our mother set aside time to have a heart-shaped thumbprint necklace made for each of us to display her love for us and to let us know that she would always be in our hearts. It was her last gift. It was an amazingly beautiful and captivating gift that we will cherish for the rest of our lives. She told the nurse that once she passed, we should be given the gifts. She was so thoughtful. If you have children, or, other loved ones that you want to touch, I highly recommend giving the gift of a thumbprint necklace. You may never understand just how much it will mean to the recipient, but, trust me, there is nothing like it….It is a gift that will be honored and cherished for the duration of a lifetime.