Today I honor and celebrate my mom Darlene Fox on what would have been her 57th Birthday.
Every year on this day for the last four years I’ve tried to figure out how best to remember her. The first year after she died I placed a picture of her on the mantel of my fireplace. Another year as I do every year I brought purple flowers to her gravesite. One year my girls and I made red velvet cake her favorite. None of these gestures ever felt right to me. I think the problem was less in the pictures, the flowers, or the cake than in the nature of the day itself. Anything I could do in honor of her birthday felt insignificant compared with how much I missed her. That insignificance had the effect of accentuating her absence and I worried that I was failing to commemorate her in the right way. As a result, I always felt a small sense of relief when my mom’s birthday had passed. But today, for the first time since her death, I woke up eager to celebrate her birthday.
Just about a month ago I was encouraged by my friends and enlightened from an outside realm (I believe my mom ~ yes I do believe our loved ones are always surrounding us) about a business opportunity that I just couldn’t pass up. Not only was this new adventure one of my favorite hobbies and pass times but it was something that I started out as a young girl doing with my mom on the weekends “Junk’n.” This new business adventure was created because my mom gave me the passion and the love of all things vintage, well-worn & used. Therefore, Mariah Rainier Style was created and I have my mom to thank.
So today my girls and I decided to honor and remember my mom on her Birthday from here on out by spending a day together talking about her, remembering her, celebrating her and embracing her love of family, fun and “JUNK’N.”
My girls and I spent the day on a scavenger hunt giggling and laughing about all the weird, eclectic and “OLD” stuff we saw. Every corner we turned I found something on the floor or the shelf that was in my home growing up as a kid. Life is about stories – memories. It felt amazing to celebrate my mom with my girls telling stories and going on an adventure just like her and I did together while I was growing up.
Today I remember her not with sadness but with joy, happiness, love, memories and a “Trunk full of Funky Junk.”
Happy Birthday Mom.
Mariah Rainier 