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Mom’s Little Love Notes

From The Little Way Of Ruthie Leming, this reminder that even the smallest gestures of love can have consequences that matter for the rest of a child’s life: In the room with Ruthie’s body Laura continued to keep watch over Claire and Rebekah. Claire couldn’t stop crying. At one point she looked at Laura and […]
Ruthie and Claire, two days after her cancer diagnosis
Ruthie and Claire, two days after her cancer diagnosis

From The Little Way Of Ruthie Leming, this reminder that even the smallest gestures of love can have consequences that matter for the rest of a child’s life:

In the room with Ruthie’s body Laura continued to keep watch over Claire and Rebekah. Claire couldn’t stop crying. At one point she looked at Laura and asked, “Can I go get a sip of water?”

“Yeah, baby, come on,” said Laura.

“I mean, is it okay for me to leave?”

That was Claire, thought Laura. Claire would never leave her mama. When Ruthie was so sick, and Mike would be working Saturday nights at the fire station, Claire turned down invitations to do fun things with friends. She chose instead to stay home with Mama and watch movies, or play games. Anything to keep Mama from feeling alone. Even now, in death, Claire was faithful.

“Miss Laura, this was such a normal day,” Claire said. “Mama had my lunch box ready. She kissed me ten times on my hand. I walked out the door and she said, ‘I can’t wait to see you when you get home.’ It was a normal day. She told me good luck on my test, and I left.”

Panic crossed Claire’s face.

“My note! Where is my lunch box? Every day she writes me a note and puts it in my lunch box. Omigod, omigod, I’ve got to go out to the care and get my lunch box!”

Claire and Laura ran down the hall, out the hospital door, and to the Suburban. Claire yanked open the passenger door, grabbed her lunch box, and opened it. Tjere, on Post-it paper, were her mother’s final words to her:

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Claire wept. “She’s not going to be there to hug me. I can’t hug her again.”

“Claire, listen to me,” said Laura. “That just shows you that at seven thirty this morning, when your mama sent you out the door, she didn’t know she was going to leave you. The first thing your mama said to y’all when she told you she had cancer was ‘We’re not going to be angry at God.’ Baby, I don’t believe you can be angry with God about this. you can’t. The one thing that she is free of is her sickness and her cancer. The hardest thing for her to do in this world was to leave y’all. She would never choose to do that.”

When Rebekah saw Claire had her note from Mama, she remembered that she had left her lunch box at school. Laura drove out to Bains Elementary, three miles north of town, fetched Bekah’s lunch box, and delivered it to her in the hospital room. Ruthie’s final words to Rebekah were:

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You never know when it’s going to be the little things that count for a lot. Don’t overlook the little things.

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