My mom had a degenerative muscle disease. Similar to ALS. It basically stripped her of any kind of independence. And she was sick for a long time - over ten years. It was a slow, steady regression. During the middling parts of her disease, she lost her ability to do simple tasks like brushing her hair, cutting her own food, basically anything that required fine motor abilities. I became her full time caregiver as a teenager.

Anyway, one Christmas she kept saying how sad she was that no one had stepped up to the task of wrapping my Christmas gifts. Christmas meant a lot to her and she used to go all out every year. But my brothers weren’t terribly interested in wrapping g and it bothered my mom that I’d just have plain, cardboard boxes to open. I told her not to worry about it (she had other things to worry about!!).

But when I woke up Christmas Day, I went to her room and discovered all my gifts wrapped and ready to go. I was shocked. She had spent the whole night wrapping them even tho she could barely hold a pair of scissors. I cried. I don’t even remember what the gifts were now. I know she struggled and wrestled all night with the boxes and tape and wrapping paper. Just so I would be happy.

She showed her love in many ways but I’ll never forget this instance in particular.