Click For Audio Version
I wrote this right before my mother died of cancer.
.. and was later asked to read it as part of the Eulogy…
The Ticket
The year I was sixteen, my mother was still in her mid-thirties. Together we got tickets for one of the last days of the New York World’s Fair.
I teased her about how excited she was with our ticket find and teased her more when we finally arrived.
Her habit was to clutch the map of the huge fairgrounds and mutter, “Now let me just get my bearings, and you just FOLLOW me.”
It was a magical day. At its end, we were both in near tears as we tore ourselves away and ran for the last bus back to New Jersey..The fair would be torn down..and most all of this beauty gone, in the months ahead.
Over the next 40 years that followed, despite the thousand miles that separated us, each year on the anniversary of that last day of the Fair, we would send the other a note and reminder. October 2nd came to represent more than just a day of remembering the fair. It became a day, each year, in which we would recall our gratitude for each other, and write a litany of memories of our shared years together.
The 41st year was different. Mom was being cared for by Hospice after her long, brave battle with cancer. She asked that we spend the October days together, one last time.
I told my 6 grown children that I wanted to give her something…say something…do something..special. There seemed to be nothing.
Then a few words in a sermon sparked an idea within.
Forty-one years after securing our tickets to the New York World’s Fair, I am getting on the bus for our final visit.
The leaves of October are glorious again.
In my pocket, I have a final gift for my dying mother.
It is only a homemade ticket for her final trip.
Like the trip to the fair, and other travels in her life, she knows the map already so well.
I know He is calling her first, so the rest of us can simply follow her.
This ticket says, “..him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out.” (John 6:37b)
Jesus Christ’s words.
The little scrap of paper that is her final gift, reads:
” TICKET TO HEAVEN”.
—————————————————————————————
Postscript…
Mom loved her last gift..
She smiled and reached for my hand.
She nodded, and whispered..
“I remember…..I love you”..
…and went on her final trip…
….. Home to Jesus……
——————————————————————————————————————–
If you enjoyed this story from the heart you might also enjoy, “Heart Dwellers.”