Thrifty Acres: My Mom's Last Mother's Day

Hello! Although my mom was always very thrifty - when you're raising eight kids, you have to be - she never was one for shopping at thrift stores. Admittedly, there were none in my hometown while I was growing up, but eventually a Goodwill came in. My mom still didn't go there, for, as she told me, thrift stores were for lower-income people. She didn't say that to be a snob; rather, she felt if people of better means shopped at thrift stores, that would result in less merchandise for people of lesser means to purchase. 

This may have been true at one point, but I tried pointing out to her that in today's world, thrift stores seemed to want people of any means to shop there, as increased sales meant increased revenue for whatever the sales funded. (in my community, besides the biggies like Goodwill and Salvation Army, there are also thrift stores whose proceeds go toward a private school system, an animal shelter, a rescue mission, and more). 

But my mom didn't change her tune until an old friend came to visit, along with one of the friend's adult daughters. My mom admired the daughter's sharp outfit, probably assuming it had come from a trendy boutique (said daughter was married to a doctor). But no, the daughter said she had bought her outfit at - a Goodwill store! 

From then on, when I showed off a nice top I'd gotten at a thrift store, my mom was more appreciative. And when she'd come to visit and I'd point out the nice decorative pieces I'd gotten at thrift stores, she'd praised me for my savvy. I would even take her to some of the thrift stores in the area. I don't recall if she bought anything, but she was impressed by the nice furniture one of the stores had for sale. 

To show how my mom's attitude had made a complete turn-around, when in spring of 2010 I asked her what she'd like for Mother's Day, she insisted that I go to a thrift store to buy her some new tops! 

I headed to a local Goodwill, where, as luck would have it, there was a host of tops that fit the bill for quality, condition, and size, as well as being in colors that would look good on my mom. I selected several tops from various upscale stores and catalogs - places my mom would never shop(too expensive for her). And of course, I paid a fraction of the original prices for those tops. 

My mom was thrilled with the huge box of "new" tops and wore them throughout that spring and summer. She even told me that one of my sisters-in-law, who'd grown up in a snooty suburb, had paid her a compliment on one of the tops I'd gotten at that thrift store haul! 

What none of us knew at the time that 2010 was the last year my mom would be alive on a Mother's Day. She died on Christmas Eve that same year. 

So in retrospect, it seems fitting that we ended up giving each other a gift on Mother's Day that year - I gave her some nice clothes she never would have bought for herself, and she gave me the gift of acceptance for my thrift store habits.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!