Corey’s Clover Necklace
For those of you that have read my book “The China Cabinet”, you know the significance of the clover necklace placed on Corey’s headstone.
For those of you that haven’t, I won’t tell the whole story, I’m sure I’ve shared it before… but it is something I remember my mother doing when we were children. She would make clover necklaces for us as we would play in our yard during the summer months. We would wear them and run through the sprinkler.
When she passed, I began making them for her as I would visit her grave. As I tie the knots I tell her about my family… our ups and downs. I laugh and cry… and when I’m done making her necklace I leave it on her headstone.
One year the gardener got rid of all of the clover on mom’s grave. It broke my heart that I couldn’t do what I’d always done while visiting her. I came home and told my boys about it.
The next day, Mother’s Day, the boys gave me a clover necklace. They gave me one every Mother’s day since.
I found out this Mother’s Day… as Josh tried hard to tie the flowers together… “This was always Corey’s job… I’m not sure I’m doing this right!”
Corey had been making my necklaces all these years.
So today, on my first day that I could go by and see him with his new headstone… I made him his first clover necklace.
(PS: There is still no clover on mom’s grave, thus none on Corey’s since he’s right next to her. So I borrowed a few from a nice lady 2 graves over. I asked her if it was OK… she didn’t seem to mind. I explained it was a tradition… I’m going to transplant some of the clover in my yard onto their graves when no one is looking.)
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