During this holiday season, residents’ families reflect on their favorite festive memories with their loved ones. Nancy Albertson shared these cherished holiday memories of time spent with her mother, Emily Ann Greenwood, a resident at Bridges® by EPOCH at Westwood.
My mother put her heart and soul into creating magical Christmases for her five children and husband every year, and her tastefully decked halls, festive feasts and endless holiday cheer never failed to deliver.
One of Mom’s prized holiday traditions was her “seasoned” fruit cake. Now, there are not many folks who claim to like fruit cake, but I’ll bet they never tasted one like my mother’s! Early in the season, she would carefully select the tastiest combination of ingredients and prepare several loaves. Then she’d sprinkle the loaves with a tablespoon of light rum every other day or so. I think I ate at least half of every moist, fruity loaf she made.
My mother would stay up long past our bedtimes on Christmas Eve, covertly wrapping the bounty of gifts that would “magically” appear under the twelve-foot, tinseled tree the next morning. As I got older, I realized that the real gift was the selfless love Mom poured into making sure our holidays were fun and special. With a houseful of young, overly excited early risers and a full day of cooking and celebrating still ahead of her, Mom must have been utterly exhausted on Christmas Day, yet the smile on her face was always as big as ours.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all at Bridges®. Thank you for taking such good care of my mother and creating this space to share her story.
– Nancy Albertson