When my daughter Ann was in the third grade, she came to me with a problem after school.“ Mom, Lucy is angry with me!” she said. “She wants me to be her best friend, but I can’t make friends with others. Could you help me talk with her?” I looked at her for a moment. I wondered how I should help her. Suddenly an idea came to me.

I took two baskets from the living room and said, “My dear, when everyone is born, he or she has a little basket. This little basket is yours and the big one is mine. You can see your little basket is inside mine. When you were born, there were many things in it. I put the things in my basket because you were too young. As you grew older and began to do something by yourself, I placed a few things back in your basket. When you learned to dress yourself, the things began to go into your basket.”

“I can dress myself,” Ann said in a low voice.

“Right. As you grow up, you must do more and more things by yourself,” I said to her with a smile. Then I took her basket out of mine and handed it to her. “You will finally carry your own basket and go on with your life.”

Ann looked up at me and said, “I understand, Mom. I have to do some things by myself because they are in my basket.”

Last year on Mother’s Day, someone from our community invited people to share stories about their mothers.

A policeman said his mother took him to the opera in St. Louis on Saturdays. He listened to dialects (方言) he didn’t understand. He grew to love opera. Now every Saturday he listens to a radio station that plays opera in the afternoons, enjoying Italian voices and fondly(深情地) remembering his mom.

A woman shared that she was only 17 months old when her mother died. Her father remarried. She values the things learned from her stepmother — how to keep house clean, cook and care for children. “But it wasn’t a mother’s love,” she said. “If you have a mother and you’ve known a mother’s love, don’t take it for granted.”

An businessman was 9 years old when his mom let him skip（逃课） school on his birthday. The car driver said, “Why aren’t you in school?” “My mom let me skip and is taking me out to lunch for my birthday,” he said. The attendant said, “Your mom loves you like nobody else. Don’t you ever forget that, OK? And take care of your mom!”

Another person shared that when he moved to the US as a young man, his parents did not agree. He came anyway and landed in Fayetteville, Arkansas. He found a roommate, and every weekend they drove to the roommate’s home where his mother had food prepared and waited for them. They’d pick it up and have food for the week. The roommate’s mother became a stand-in (替身) mother with whom he has kept a lifelong connection.

It is good to tell others what your mother, or someone who has helped fill that role, means to you. But if your mother is still living, it might also be good to tell her.

This is Lucy and this is Lily. They are sisters. They are eleven. This is their bedroom(卧室). It’s nice. The green bed(床) is Lily’s and the blue one is Lucy’s. They have two desks. Lucy’s is yellow, but Lily’s is red. Look! Here is a photo. The girl in purple is Lucy and the one in white is Lily. Their bags are on the bed. Lucy’s is small, but Lily’s is big. They have the same color.