It was 1978, my 7th birthday. My Dad came home with present for me and I was so excited to open it up.

“Close your eyes Debs”. I closed my eyes as I had the biggest smile across my face. When I opened my eyes, there in our house on Davis street in Auburn, Maine, and I couldn’t believe my eyes! There it was, a big, beautiful brand new bright yellow lunch box!

But this was not your ordinary lunch box, THIS was the only lunch box I’d wanted in my entire 7 years of existence! It was THE lunch box, an 3D holographic BEE GEES lunchbox and i was the proud owner of it! Nobody else in my entire Lake Street Elementary School owned one and I felt so important.

I remember how my mom packed my lunch that next day for school and I was so excited to pull it out in the cafeteria for everyone to envy.

I walked home from school that day with my best friend Lisa Peppie who walked in the same direction but she took a left and I took a right towards our houses. When I got home home my Mom asked me how was my lunch? She would always put little notes in my lunchbox with a few happy words of encouragement.

“Everyone made fun of me today”
She would tell me that the other kids weren’t bad, that they just didn’t understand that I was just as special and important as they were and don’t be worry it’ll get better. “MOM, NOBODY EVEN KNEW WHO THE BEEGEES WERE!” and I don’t think I ever used that lunchbox again after that day.

Come to think of it , i frequently wondered why she used to say these things to me. As a kid I literally just thought we were all kids so id often at times say random stuff back to her like the day she sat me down to tell me i was adopted but when i told her “Mom i already KNEW i was adopted” and she told me years later how i made her laugh so hard “tell me how Debs, how did you know that you were adopted?”

I replied in my snarky 5 year old tone, “mom derrrrr (the lingo in he 70’s) !! It’s because i have better legs than you do everybody knows that “
We shared that laughter right up until 12/21/2022

What stuck with me all these 47 years later, was the #LifeLessons that came out of that day. It wasn’t about BeeGees, or the lunchbox, despite me being the only one that looked like me there at that school, my Mom always found a way to get through to me. She would always say something encouraging and uplifting and when she least expected it, I made her laugh or cry depending on the day, but no matter what I did throughout my childhood, she never gave up on me. She was ALWAYS Wonder Woman to me and always will be. ♥️

Never give up! You can always give an encouraging word to someone along your path

theharmonycoach

nevergiveup #harvestinglifeslessons

iloveyousomuch