So far this winter we’ve had some record lows here in temperature. Granted, it’s Wyoming, so our winters are usually pretty rough, but this year we’ve had some bitter-cold days. In the midst of this, my mother decided that she needed a new coat. Not just a new coat, but a heavier winter coat that would keep out the wind and offer more protection when the temperatures were dropping well below zero.

Over the span of about two weeks she went on and on about this coat. She talked about going to different stores around the city and not finding what she wanted and how no one seemed to have the sort of coat she was searching for. Then one day, in quite the gush of excitement, she tells me she found a coat. She even went through the trouble to show it to me and put it on and model it around for a minute and tell me how warm it was. She insisted that I hold the coat and feel the kind of material it was made out of. It certainly wasn’t my type of coat, but she was happy with it, and I was happy for her.

Then this morning while I was sitting down with my mom and having coffee she tells me that the night before my sister had come over to her house. She was there to pick mom up to take her to a company Christmas dinner, and while they were getting ready Sarah (my sister) had seen my mother’s new coat. She tried it on and (in my mother’s words) fell in love with it. Sarah couldn’t stop talking about how much she liked the coat, and was even modeling it in front of the mirror. Sarah repeatedly asked where she had gotten it and how much it cost and how she wanted one just like it.

In the end, my mother gave her the coat.

I was shocked. I sat on the couch with my mouth hanging open saying, “You just gave it to her? But you just got that coat!”

My mother’s simple reply was this: “She fell in love with it. She fell completely in love with it, so why not just give it to her? If you fell in love with something I had, I’d give it to you. I can always buy another coat.”

I felt myself being in awe of my mother at that moment. Still am, as I sit here and think about it. My parents have always been giving people. Growing up, my friends called them “Care Bears”. Now, even in their older years, and as me and my sister are grown and have families of our own, they’re still giving. I’ve always respected my mother. She’s always been a very kindhearted lady, and things like this coat business prove it to me time and time again. Sarah wasn’t in need of a coat. She has more clothes than any one person should have, so it wasn’t out of need that my mom sacrificed her coat -it was simply because Sarah fell in love with it, and my mother wanted to make her happy.

I can only hope that I can be so giving and unselfish. That I will always be willing to give in light of other peoples’ happiness. My mother is a huge inspiration to me, and I am blessed to have such a great woman as a role model.