Not just a Hallmark Holiday

After years of pooh-poohing Mother's Day, the lightbulb finally went off.

Mother's Day is important to my mother, more so with every year. And that's what matters. Took me 50 years, but hey, I got there.

You can bet that my clients, whose parents are no longer living, will be thinking of their fathers on Father's Day. I know I'll be thinking of mine.

Family Love Letters gives my older clients an opportunity to think about their parents and talk about their values, quirks, interests -- all the ways, big and small, they remember their parents.

These memories, which may seem small, are so precious that they make into their family love letter.

I love the picture Roberta painted of her dad and his enduring gift to his people:

"My dad was a physician-surgeon who loved to tinker. When he was off work, he did little fix-it jobs in the house. He had every tool possible and his work bench was as neat as his surgical suite. He smoked Smith Corona cigars that came in wood boxes with a hinge top and a little lock. Every time he finished a box of cigars, he screwed a handle onto the narrow end of the box and put it up on the shelf. Each of us had our own box with our name on it. The others were labeled by what they contained – nails, wrenches, pliers – and you could pull them off the shelf by the handle. When each of you were born, Papa brought a cigar box with your name on it."

Whether your parents claim to care about these Hallmark days or shrug them off, letting them go by without a card, call or brunch is a definite no-no. These days are opportunities to conspicuously appreciate your parents. Family Love Letters goes a step further, by giving your parents the gift of honoring their own parents.