The Yellow Shirt.

Hello everyone ~~ Nice to visit with you again. I have been busy cooking

and washing the last couple of days. So all is clean and tidy again, and the

fridge and freezer have food in them again. I made more pea and ham soup

and roast chicken and roast vegies etc. Lately, I have been cooking some

tomatos and onion in butter and it adds interest and taste to the meals.

Keep in mind, with my soup, it is Winter where I am. And it is cold.

A friend sent me this nice story which we will call….

.

<><><><> The Yellow Shirt <><><><> Thanks Warren.

This is really special - It is a great story! all you mum's

will really love it and might get an idea....

The baggy yellow shirt had long sleeves, four extra-large pockets trimmed in black thread and snaps up the front. It was faded from years of wear, but still in decent shape. I found it in 1963 when I was home from college on Christmas break, rummaging through bags of clothes Mom intended to give away. "You're not taking that old thing, are you?" Mom said when she saw me packing the yellow shirt. "I wore that when I was pregnant with your brother in 1954!"

"It's just the thing to wear over my clothes during art class,

Mom. Thanks!" I slipped it into my suitcase before she could object. The yellow shirt be came a part of my college wardrobe. I loved it. After graduation, I wore the shirt the day I moved into my new apartment and on Saturday mornings when I cleaned.

The next year, I married. When I became pregnant, I wore the yellow shirt during big-belly days. I missed Mom and the rest of my family, since we were in Colorado and they were in Illinois . But that shirt helped. I smiled, remembering that Mother had worn it when she was pregnant, 15 years earlier.

That Christmas, mindful of the warm feelings the shirt had given me, I patched one elbow, wrapped it in holiday paper and sent it to Mom. When Mom wrote to thank me for her "real" gifts, she said the yellow shirt was lovely. She never mentioned it again.

The next year, my husband, daughter and I stopped at Mom and Dad's to pick up some furniture. Days later, when we uncrated the kitchen table, I noticed something yellow taped to its bottom. The shirt!

And so the pattern was set.

On our next visit home, I secretly placed the shirt under Mom and Dad's mattress. I don't know how long it took for her to find it, but almost two years passed before I discovered it under the base of our living-room floor lamp. The yellow shirt was just what I needed now while refinishing furniture. The walnut stains added character.

In 1975 my husband and I divorced. With my three children, I prepared to move back to Illinois . As I packed, a deep depression overtook me. I wondered if I could make it on my own. I wondered if I would find a job. I paged through the Bible, looking for comfort. In Ephesians, I read, "So use every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy whenever he attacks, and when it is all over, you will be standing up."

I tried to picture myself wearing God's armor, but all I saw was the stained yellow shirt. Slowly, it dawned on me. Wasn't my mother's love a piece of God's armor? My courage was renewed.

Unpacking in our new home, I knew I had to get the shirt back to Mother. The next time I visited her, I tucked it in her bottom dresser drawer.

Meanwhile, I found a good job at a radio station. A year later I discovered the yellow shirt hidden in a rag bag in my cleaning closet. Something new had been added. Embroidered in bright green across the breast pocket were the words "I BELONG TO PAT."

Not to be outdone, I got out my own embroidery materials and added an apostrophe and seven more letters. Now the shirt proudly proclaimed, "I BELONG TO PAT'S MOTHER." But I didn't stop there. I zig-zagged all the frayed seams, then had a friend mail the shirt in a fancy box to Mom from Arlington , VA. We enclosed an official looking letter from "The Institute for the Destitute," announcing that she was the recipient of an award for good deeds. I would have given anything to see Mom's face when she opened the box. But, of course, she never mentioned it.

Two years later, in 1978, I remarried. The day of our wedding, Harold and I put our car in a friend's garage to avoid practical jokers. After the wedding, while my husband drove us to our honeymoon suite, I reached for a pillow in the car to rest my head. It felt lumpy. I unzipped the case and found, wrapped in wedding paper, the yellow shirt. Inside a pocket was a note: "Read John 14:27-29. I love you both, Mother."

That night I paged through the Bible in a hotel room and found the verses: "I am leaving you with a gift: peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn't fragile like the peace the world gives. So don't be troubled or afraid. Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again. If you really love me, you will be very happy for me, for now I can go to the Father, who is greater than I am. I have told you these things before they happen so that when they do, you will believe in me."

The shirt was Mother's final gift. She had known for three months that she had terminal Lou Gehrig's disease. Mother died the following year at age 57.

I was tempted to send the yellow shirt with her to her grave. But I'm glad I didn't, because it is a vivid reminder of the love-filled game she and I played for 16 years. Besides, my older daughter is in college now, majoring in art. And every art student needs a baggy yellow shirt with big pockets.

<><><><><> It is a nice story. <><><><><>

<><><><><> Tell me This …… <><><><><>

If a person owns a piece of land do they own it all the Way Down to the core of the earth??

Why can’t women put mascara on with their mouths closed??

Why is it called Alcoholics Anonymous when the first thing you do is stand up and say, “My name is Bob, and I am an alcoholic”??

Is it possible to clean your teeth without wiggling your bottom??

Why is there a light in the fridge but not in the freezer.

Why is there a light in the fridge, but not in the freezer??

Why does mineral water that has trickled through the mountains for centuries have a ‘use by’ date??

Is French kissing in France just called kissing??

Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, “I think I’ll squeeze these dangly things here and drink whatever comes out??

What do people in China call their good plates?? (crockery)

Can you sentence a homeless man to house arrest??

If the professor on Gilligan’s Island can make a radio out of a coconut, why can’t he fix a hole in a boat??

Why do people point to their wrist when asking for the time, but not to their crotch when they ask where the toilet is??

<><><><><> Now some Jokes, and some repeats <><><><><>

Jim and Beth were both patients in a mental hospital.

One day while they were walking past the hospital swimming pool, Jim

suddenly jumped into the deep end. He sank to the bottom and stayed there.

Beth promptly jumped in to save him. She swam to the bottom and pulled him out.

When the medical director became aware of Beth’s heroic act, he immediately

ordered her to be discharged from the hospital, as he now considered her mentally stable.

He went to tell Beth the news and said, “Beth, I have good news and bad news.

The good news is youu’re being discharged, since you were able to rationally

respond to a crisis by jumping in and saving the life of another patient. I have

concluded that your act displays a sound mindedness.

The bad news is, Jim, the patient you saved, hung himself right after you saved him,

with his bathrobe belt in the bathroom. I am so sorry, but he’s dead.”

Beth replied: “He didn’t hang himself, I put him there to dry.”

<><><><><>

A working wife on her way home decided to see her doctor fr a check-up.

After examination, he told her she was in perfect condition and that she had the

body of a 30 year old.

Pleased, she rushed home to tell her husband. “The doctor says I’m in perfect condition and have the body of a 30 year old,” she gushed.

“What did he say about your 50 year old bum?” he replied.

“He didn’t mention you at all, ”she said.

<><><><><><>

Ah Too, he say “True friend, he walk in, when he rest of the world walk out.”

Ah Too, e say “Man can usually be judged by what he laughs at.”

Ah Too, he say, “Too many people, he hit the hay when he should be making it.

Ah Too, he say, “Man never climb ladder of success, with his hands in pockets.

And Finally …. The average man has five senses.

The successful man has six --- touch, taste, sight, smell, hearing—and common.

<><><><><> Bye For Now, Merle. <><><><><>