RECALLING THE MOST MEMORABLE GIFT.

A mother's happiness

When I think about my favorite holiday gift, the first thing that comes to mind is the small cotton candy machine I got the Christmas I was 8 years old. Who cares if it made a mess and smelled terrible. I got to make cotton candy, which was a miracle in my young mind.

There were also the Incredible Edibles I got the next year. Do you remember those? They were plastic creations you made in the shapes of bugs and worms. You cooked them in a hot-plate device. Once they were baked into the ghastly shapes, you ate them. They tasted dreadful and I'm sure were, on some level, quite toxic. But when you're 9 years old, you relish swallowing something so disgusting.

But my favorite holiday gift came years later, and it wasn't a gift directly for me. It was for my mom, Josephine, but the joy spread to me.

My mother lived in Indiana and had yearned for years to move to Florida. The winters were very hard on her because of her arthritis and she knew the warmer climate would do wonders for her physically and emotionally. She also loves the ocean, something I must have inherited from her. I can sit by the ocean for hours and never get bored.

Finally, in the winter of 1997, my mom announced she was going to move. She had rented a trailer in St. Petersburg, Fla. She eventually bought the trailer and lived there year-round.

My sister, Marie, who's a teacher and was on winter break, drove mom down the week of Christmas and set up the trailer, which was furnished. My niece, Madyson, who was 4 years old at the time, went along.

My sister should have her own home makeover show. She worked wonders in just a few days, making the trailer a home for our mom.

Because it was such short notice, I couldn't get time off from work. I worked for a chain of newspapers in Dayton, Ohio, located about two hours from Indianapolis.

Christmas Day came. I was going to spend it with friends, which I knew would be nice, but it was going to be first time I'd spend Christmas away from my family.

Then my holiday spirits were lifted. At noon, my mom, sister and niece called. It was 76 degrees in Florida. Mom's knees were much better. And they were making sandwiches and were going to the ocean for a Christmas picnic. I could hear over the phone how happy my mom was.

I went down to St. Petersburg in February and saw firsthand how my mom loved living in Florida. She went to the ocean just about every day and enjoyed making new friends in her trailer park. Yes, I spent Christmas 1997 without my family, but my mom's happiness was the greatest gift I've ever received.

Mark Kellam

Southest San Fernando Valley 

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2 photos

Photo:

(1) The valleynews.com team poses around a Daily News' Christmas tree. In the front row is editor Annie Hundley and community journalist Mark Kellam. In the back, from left, are community journalists Carol Rock, Alejandro Guzman, Jason Kandel and Angie Valencia. Newsroom decorations range from an inflatable tree to menorahs and a skeleton Santa in the sports department.

Edna Trunnell-Simpson/Daily News

(2) Community journalist Mark Kellam poses with his mom, whose happiness is the best gift he's received.

Photo courtesy Mark Kellam valleynews.com