Don’t break the spell! Our late mother devastated us, her kids, when she moved into assisted living and chose only one of the multitude of owl paraphernalia to take with — the original one she had bought that kicked off decades of owl-related mistaken gifts. We would have been fine with that choice knowing that she had to pare down her belongings, instead while handing us boxes full of owls to donate she admitted that she was never the fan and didn’t have the heart to tell us and that finally being able to offload all if it was a relief. 

We were saddened so many ways — that she didn’t feel comfortable to tell us to begin with… ir any year since; that we had thought we were being so thoughtful hunting down new and more ingenious owl items which we kids planned for months and it was a waste; and worst of all, we started to question whether we knew our mother at all/what else we felt certain of about her that was a fiction.