This hair dryer no longer works. It stopped one day as I was getting ready for an appointment so I ran to where I keep my travel supplies and luggage and grabbed my old travel hair dryer, purchased during those long ago times when a hotel didn’t supply one for you. I finished primping and made it to my destination on time.
Upon returning home a few hours later, I took the defunct hair dryer from the bathroom where I had left it to the spare bedroom. I put it there so I could take a picture of it for a future blog post and there it sat for several months. I hadn’t forgotten about it and saw it often but I never did the photo shoot until today.
What is so special about this common appliance? It is the last thing my mom gave me before she died. It wasn’t a special occasion, we were out together as we often were and I said I needed to pick up a new one. As we were walking to the checkout area, she grabbed it from me and said she wanted to get it for me. This was a few months after Christmas and a few months before she became thermally ill. It was a typical day for us, going to breakfast and running errands, having the best time doing mundane things.
She was always picking things up for me that she saw on sale that she knew I used, CVS specials were a favorite of hers and she would buy me deodorant, shampoo and tissues when she saw them on sale. To this day when we go to CVS to pick up our medications at the pharmacy drive-through, when the window opens and the distinctive, unique smell wafts out it is an assault on my heart and memories wash over me.
I don’t remember the last toiletry she purchased for me or where we got the hair dryer but I have been aware since the day she left this earth of its significance. I am a firm believer in not keeping things because of their sentimental value unless I use it or display it. I will not be holding on to the hair dryer but honor it and my mom by capturing the memory here. Some things are just things but when it’s the last thing, that is forever.
