Angel's and Iris's

I awoke in the middle of the night thinking of the border that ran across as a border in my Mom's bedroom. I still consider that room as her's since she had lived with me for so many years prior to living in the nursing home. When my Dad died in 1989, my Mom came to live with us. A family of four became a family of five for many years. There had been a lot of changes over the years including moving to South Carolina in 1990. We bought a house that had 3 bedrooms. The master bedroom to the rear of the house was for me and my husband, the bedroom to the front of the house was my son's and the bedroom to the side was designated as my Mom's and Daughter to share. When our Daughter arrived at her teen years, we noticed a strain on the Granddaughter/Grandmother relationship and decided to make other accommodations to suite them both. Since at the time, we didn't have a dining room set, our dining room on the lower level became a perfect bedroom for our son. We closed off the wide entry into the room and hung a door for privacy. The newest decor at the time was sponge painting which I did in the colors of his choosing and he made it his new hangout. Our Daughter finally had her own bedroom which was repainted in teal and quilt and curtains to match. She also put her little touches of individuality on her new bedroom and was able to have her sleepovers with her friends. When it came to Mom's bedroom, I new it had to be special for her. Something to make her relax and enjoy her new private space. We headed out to the craft store to look for the perfect stencil to do a border at the top of her walls. We came across this template stencil of an angel's head that was perfect. I painted all the the walls an off white and standing on a step ladder preceded to start the stenciling. Mom supervised and all the while kept telling me how much she loved it. I was so happy to do this for her seeing the expression on her face. After completing the whole room, we stood back and examined it. After a while, we realized that the Angel would disappear and it turned into an Iris. Then you would look again and it would look like an Angel's head again. We thought that was very cool. Mom's room was complete and she enjoyed catching all the views at the front of the house. She didn't miss much (smiling).
Years later, when our Son and Daughter moved out, I thought Mom might like the larger room that was our Daughter's at the side of the house. She never said she didn't want to move to that room, she just did it. One day she seemed out of sorts and I found her crying. I asked her what was wrong? She said she wanted to go back to her own room that she felt more comfortable there. It was as if I had punished her for taking her out of her room. Once again her face beamed like when we first did the stenciling. She said she missed her Angel border and said she use to count them as she fell asleep. The Angel/Iris border is the same color as the typed words on this page. I've come to realize that through life we find our little comforts in the smallest things that are uniquely our own. Mom's was her Angel/Iris border.