Before there were cell phones

The other day I wore a long wool coat that I hadn’t worn for years. It was my mom’s and I had borrowed it a number of times as an older teen and young adult. After my mom passed away, it became mine. In this coat, I’d attend things like nice dinners, church stuff, and symphony performances. 

Inside the pocket, I found a note penned by my mom and left on the kitchen counter for me to find from many years back.  Her handwriting is so distinct - very beautiful cursive with capitalized script to emphasize locations -  I recognized it immediately. She was explaining to me how I would meet up with my family for a performance downtown since I had to work late. 

When I found this note, I was deep in the trenches of visiting the hospital and hoping very optimistically (and correctly!)  that all would be well with Jess. When I came upon it, I was grateful for the way it made me feel like my mom was around and going to meet me at the FOOD COURT by SBARRO. I like to think she was looking out for me.

 After realizing that this very well-placed note had buoyed me up, I laughed and thought to myself, this is what we did before cell phones, that is, post-it notes on kitchen counters with the assurance that “we’ll look for you.”