Before There was a Martha Stewart There was my Mother

Before there was a Martha Stewart there was my mother.

She believed that presentation was fundamental.

To that end, every gift she gave reflected this.

One year my brother was invited to a birthday party for his best friend.

The gift was a rather mundane dress shirt (requested by the recipient’s mother.)

But my mother couldn’t just wrap it in a shirt box and let it go at that.

She made the box look like a shirt, stand up collar, cuffs, buttons and a tie!

(Back “in the day” this was heady stuff!)

When it was my brother’s turn to receive his birthday gift, the young boy’s mother tried to reciprocate by decorating her box in a crafty way.

Her son remarked, “Gee Mom, you’re almost as clever as Mrs. Cox!”