A special Valentine's box for a special child CultureMap
When my oldest brother, Tommy, was in the fifth grade, his teacher announced they were going to have a “Valentine’s Day contest for most clever box." Tommy, a unique combination of natural athlete, “brain” and not just shy but seemingly excruciatingly so, turned to our mother who was only too delighted to take on the task. She was a unique combination of athlete, artist and one other thing: She loved Tommy something special. So as she did with most everything she created, she set about making this box, putting into it her whole heart…and maybe something more.
Tommy wasn’t there when Mama made the box, but my older sister, Canice, who was closest to Tommy in age, was, and she remembers watching Mother move with great fascination.
“She created it with such a childlike joy,” Canice recalls and, amazingly enough, still describes the creation in vivid details. “It was like the size of a work boot box, only deeper and more square. Mother covered it in pink construction paper, then cut out red hearts of all sizes and glued them on the side and top. Around the edges, she added a different color pink crepe paper like ribbon, twisted gently…then out of wire or maybe pipe cleaners, she made a big heart and covered it with red crape paper…somehow attached an arrow and a small card to it that said ‘Have Heart Will Travel.’” “I’ll never forget how cool the box was,” Canice said, “but I thought to myself, ‘those teachers will never believe that my brother made that box.’"
