FROM KI’S MA
A Letter From My Mother—To You All
In Response to the Year of the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree
I received a lovely email this afternoon that included a special request. My mother and stepfather were thanking me for the Christmas presents I sent--a canvas photo of my brother and I at the Elton John concert and the story I wrote about her and the Charlie Brown Christmas. Her request was that I somehow post her thank you letter to me so that my readers could also view what she had to say. I assured her I would. So here you go. A letter from my mother, who is a very good writer in her own right. xo-KiIn Response to My Mother and the Year of the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree
by Elizabeth Dufort Noreault — AKA “Kristi’s Mom”
“Mom and Ron, what can I get you two for Christmas?”
A question usually asked by all three of my adult kids about a week or two before the big day.
We struggle with that question especially now that we’re older now and have a home filled with stuff. But we ponder and try to come up with something since we live across the country from all of our youngins and want something to make us smile from the kids we love so much.
I can’t even express in words how many times I’ve said, “oh…something meaningful, something that lets us know you love me/us.”
“Something from the heart.”
I’m sure that gets the grimaces going and isn’t what they want to hear.
It takes time and energy and, hell, we gotta get this gift on its way, is what I picture them saying. But they all usually come through with beautiful, touching, lovely gifts and we are always thrilled to receive them.
This year on my birthday, I received a sad call from my tearful daughter stating she just couldn’t pull herself together to send presents or a card since she was having so many issues and struggling very hard to find her way. Of course, I understood and knew how upset she was.
I had been there myself long ago.
KiKi Walter and I always had this relationship that I didn't quite understand.
I mean, I knew she was our princess from the first time I laid eyes on her. I also knew she was stubborn and feisty—the first several weeks we had her, she wouldn’t stop screaming. Her little face would scrunch up and turn purple. She had me rocking her day and night until she settled out of pure exhaustion. Being my firstborn, I was really getting initiated!
Once she got out of that stage, I was able to revel in her cuteness and made her little outfits with matching kerchiefs and dressed her to the nines with my garage sale purchases! As she grew, she became more independent, loved to read, and was the easiest child who brought much joy to her dad and me.
She got herself into cheering and then started competing in high school forensics. It was then we all knew she was destined to do something great with her career. She lived theater and excelled at it.
I always thought we were pretty close even though she could be aloof at times with me.
Once she went to college, she became even quieter and kept more to herself. She seemed to be so independent and we were all so proud of her for that. However, I missed the mother/daughter relationship from her teen years that other moms seemed to have with their daughters and blamed myself for her remoteness and lack of communication on the fact that I left her father.
I doubted it would ever get better and figured I might as well get used to never having a close relationship with her, especially after her dad died. We would chat rarely and I would try to wait patiently (sometimes not so patiently) for any word or message from her.
Today, a few days after Christmas, Ron—my husband of over forty years, Kristi’s stepfather—and I received a gift from her as we have never received before.
It was a gift made with love, affirmation, and perhaps even forgiveness.
It is indeed the greatest gift we have ever received in all our years together. The book is called “My Mother And The Year Of The Charlie Brown Christmas Tree.” It explains all her feelings during those sad moments and how she learned to understand the complications of our lives together. It also reaffirmed her thoughts on her stepdad who always seemed like more of a thorn in her side than a man who helped raise her and loved her mom and siblings.
This book is the greatest gift I have ever gotten from her in all her fifty-plus years of living.
I have always begged her to write a book someday as I am amazed by her talent in remembering situations in her life from eons ago and putting these wonderful remembrances in a story. She has the best way with expression and brings me back in ways that make me laugh and cry like no other.
Little did I know, her first book would be given to us.
It is hard to even read it without tears of joy and has given me a sense of freedom and peace like never before!
Thank you, my daughter.
I love you…
This is exactly what I meant when I said, “something from the heart!”
XO—Ki’s Mom / Elizabeth Dufort Noreault “BJ”
