This afternoon my youngest daughter Georgia picked up a shoe box I have sitting on a chest of drawers in my bedroom and asked me what it was. It is covered in coloured foil and tissue paper, paint and glitter and has a picture in the middle of the lid. My eldest son James had made it for me a long time ago as a Mother’s Day present. Inside is a collection of cards, pictures, arts and crafts, letters, even a handmade bracelet. It is a collection of bibs and bobs that I have collected over the years that have been given to me by my kids and husband.

I wish I had a box big enough to keep everything the kids and Chris have given me over the years, but I wouldn’t have a house big enough for all of the beautiful bibs and bobs I have received so I have had to be a bit selective. As a total sentimental die hard, I have also kept all sorts of things for my kids over the years – some crafty items, school reports, awards, year books, graduation mass order of services, you name it I’ve collected it, and the idea is to put it all into a beautiful wooden box and present it to them on their 21st birthday.

But my foil and glitter covered shoe box is for me and every single thing in it contains so many valuable things as a collection and on their own as well. The little wooden block wrapped in paper with the precious poem attached that James gave me is a reminder of mornings spent chatting over the breakfast table or cold toast with inch thick margarine and vegemite which I ate with a big smile because it had been lovingly made for breakfast in bed. It is the Mother’s Day card from Matthew which a tonne of beautiful words. But more than that it is brimming with love from a child to a mother and a mother to a child. It conjures up memories of cuddles on the lounge, trips to the park and special one on one dates.

Inside my shoe box is a picture on one side and a note on the other which, although I can’t remember the finger I looked after nevertheless makes me smile from ear to ear. It brings a giggle and a surge of pride and memories of a little girl now grown and the book she was quoting which we would read together over and over and over.

Just under the lid is a handmade card made on special blue paper because blue is my favourite colour with words that are more valuable than gold. It’s a card that in an instant can transform my mood in a heartbeat and is a better high than anything else in the world. So, from the outside a colourful, slightly scruffy and dusty (dusting is not my strong suit!) shoe box wouldn’t look like much to the average eye but to me it is valuable beyond measure! It is my special sort of shoe box!