EVERYTHING
FOR YOUR FAMILY
MOTHER KNOWS
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It was a Perry Ellis dress shirt, midnight blue with diagonal lines of light blue and silver. And it caught the eye of my youngest son, a real clothes aficionado, as we shopped Macy’s Day-after-Thanksgiving sale last year. “Mom, I LOVE this shirt,” he said as he stroked the fabric. “It’s so cool,” he swooned as he held it up to himself, looking first in the mirror and then at me with an expression that said, “Pleeeease.” “Let Santa know,” I suggested, searching for the tag, thinking I would come back later to buy it. Then I saw the price: $96! “Whoa! Santa doesn’t do $96 shirts,” I said. “Save your money and maybe after Christmas it will go on sale.” As I walked out of the store, he trailed behind, looking back longingly at the shirt. “That’s all I want for Christmas, mom,” he said on the ride home…and the next day…and the next. Later that weekend, Sunday, Nov. 28 to be exact, I heard news that brought me to my knees. On a snowy afternoon in Southwest Colorado, a plane carrying NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol and his two sons had crashed. Ebersol and his oldest son survived, but young Teddy, the 14-year-old son of Ebersol and actress Susan Saint James, was thought to have perished. His body was later found under the plane wreckage. Thinking of my own two sons and aching for Saint James, I was moved to tears. Not long after, I watched Saint James remember Teddy in a “TODAY” show interview with Tim Russert. One exchange between them drove home how very short life can sometimes be: Russert: “I have a clear sense that if someone came to you and said, ‘Susan, this is the grand design. We will give you young Teddy for 14 years and then bring him home,’ you’d say…” Saint James: “Definitely. Oh, for sure. I’d take him in a minute.” Later that day, right or wrong, I hurried back to Macy’s and bought the last midnight blue, Perry Ellis shirt. The fear of spoiling my son faded as I relished the chance to indulge him. And I thought of dear Teddy as I carefully wrapped the shirt. On Christmas morning my son unwrapped the very gift I assured him he would never receive. I reveled in his delight as he modeled the shirt for the rest of the family. I took in the moment; my son standing in front of the Christmas tree, happy, healthy, and smiling, and I counted it among my most cherished gifts. Senior Writer Kimberly A. Porrazzo |
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