Fancy Soap and Processing Death

My mother died a few weeks ago.

I’ll write more on that later because I’m still processing the whole thing. Add to that that my daughter-in-law’s mother died a few days after that. Needless to say, this season has been hard. I haven’t felt much like writing. I did finish a book, but I need to do a big re-write before I send it to my agent. It’s got holes and plots that zig and zag in wrong directions; very much like my brain over this past year with all that’s gone on in my life. Ha!!

I’m not a sentimental person, in fact, I take after my mom and often throw things away which I probably shouldn’t. My mother had a box of items that she brought up from Florida two years ago. In that box was a gift set of specialty soaps that I purchased ten or so years ago.

I laughed when I saw it.

Soap. Yellow, white, pink, squares of finely milled from France. She’d always enjoyed bath items. It wasn’t overly expensive soap, something I’d picked out from Amazon to have delivered to her.

I remember seeing those soaps in her guest bath at her Florida condo. They had sat in their shiny rectangle box. They were never used then, and when she moved to the memory care unit a year ago she wasn’t allowed to bring soaps or lotions with her. I took them home and placed them in my own bathroom in a glass jar filled with other soaps I’ve collected.

There they sit.

Every morning I see those soaps. Funny how she kept them with her that whole time. Silly little soap squares. I might use them soon. I haven’t decided. Or perhaps, I’ll save them for a very long, long time.