I’ve been using Amazon Alexa devices for over a year. At least once a month, I get an email from Amazon telling me about the cool things Alexa can do. I just received such an email, and the subject was Send a Mother’s Day greeting with Alexa.
So, I asked her, “Alexa, can you send a Mother’s Day greeting to my mother in heaven?”
She thought about it for maybe a second and then said, “Hmm, I’m not sure.”
I’m not going to try and get a refund from Amazon because Alexa couldn’t do what they said she could do. I don’t really think Alexa devices have made their way into heaven yet. (However, Amazon is pretty good at marketing!) But then I stopped to think, what if….
This is my second motherless Mother’s Day. That’s the only kind I’ll get to celebrate now. But I’m not alone. I know too many people who only get to celebrate motherless Mother’s Days. But what if…
What if Alexa could send a Mother’s Day greeting to my mother in heaven? If given the chance, what would I really say? What would you say?
My Mother’s Day Greeting
Here’s the dilemma I’ve given myself: if I could really send a Mother’s Day greeting to my mother in heaven – kind of like a tweet on Twitter – what would I say?
I could try and tell her how sorry I am that I didn’t spend more time talking to her while she was alive. Maybe I could squeeze in my regrets for not having more patience with her during the last few years of her life. That would be more of a glass-is-half-empty kind of greeting; not very celebratory.
If I focused on positive greetings, I could thank her for giving me life and loving me. I might attach a list of all the things she did for me during her life, but that would be a pretty long list. Somehow, I don’t really think that would be appropriate anymore. That window of opportunity is closed – forever.
If you think this is an easy thing to do, you’d be wrong! It’s not. There is nothing easy about sending a greeting to your mother in heaven.
There just aren’t any words to express the inexpressible. I know a lot of words, but they all seem utterly meaningless, considering the positive and overwhelming impact this woman had on my life.
What do I say?
I’ve been driving myself crazy with this for the last few hours. If I had one chance – one message – what would it be? If words couldn’t say what I want to say, then what is left?
I think this may very well be one of those “less is more” things. I’m hoping my mother knew how I felt, even though I rarely told her. I’m hoping she took those feelings with her when she left. Maybe I’ll find out for sure some future day. Maybe it will be on a Mother’s Day.
For now, though, this would be my message:
I miss you every day.
I’ll love you forever.
Happy Mother’s Day!
Keep it simple, right?
Until Amazon figures out a way to get Alexa into heaven, I’ll send my Mother’s Day greeting the old fashioned way. I’ll write it on a helium-filled balloon, let it go, and hope it finds its destination.
Until We Meet Again
I’m very fortunate in that I was able to have my mother in my life until I turned sixty. We lost my maternal grandmother when my mom was in her mid-40’s. Some people lose their mother even sooner than that.
I don’t know anything definitive about the afterlife. All I have are my beliefs. I do believe in God, and I do believe in heaven. I believe that my mother is now in the spiritual presence of her mother, and her mother’s mother, etc.
When I ponder such things, as I have frequently done over the last 15 months, I hope so very much that I will once again spend time with my mother, in whatever form it may be, when my own time on this earth is over.
I wish a very sincere Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers of this world (and the next).
