The Boxes in the Basement

The Boxes in the Basement
From Chicken Soup for the Soul: Hope, Faith & Miracles
By Skip Myers

If the whole world were put into one scale, and my mother in the other, the whole world would kick the beam.
~Henry Bickersteth

We all have heroes, mentors, and people who have influenced us, encouraged us, and motivated us to reach new heights. Some of my personal heroes include political figures like Sir Winston Churchill, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Ronald Reagan. Some are sports stars like Peyton Manning, Walter Payton, Michael Jordan, and Pat Tillman. My other heroes and mentors are mostly people you do not know. One of them is named Gwen. She was my mother.

My journey began during an afternoon of spring-cleaning in my basement. It was late April, the week before Mother's Day 2015, when I was surveying the treasure trove of stuff that had collected over the years. As I began sorting through various artifacts and relics I had been hoarding, I encountered two tattered cardboard boxes. I suddenly recalled that I had inherited them from my late father four years before. I had never looked inside them. (Keep reading)