🎋Easter Memories🎋… by JoAnn

I love Easter. Spring is in the air, daffodils and tulips are popping their colors against winter’s brown, trees are budding and blooming, and there is a freshness in the air that promises a new journey is about to unfold. Most importantly, the story of Easter from the Bible coincides with all these symbols of new birth. As a child, I could not grasp the true meaning of the holiday until my early teens. The thought of Jesus hanging on a cross till his death was over my head. Or perhaps my heart couldn’t handle that truth until I was older.

Growing up, my sister Jeanie and I looked forward to Easter. We couldn’t wait to find our Easter baskets Sunday morning and see what kind of goodies we had received. I don’t remember ever believing in the Easter Bunny. We always knew that our mama had lovingly made our baskets for us. Filling them with sweets that we only received that one time of the year. Colorful plastic eggs filled with jelly beans, bubble gum, marshmallow bunnies, and little chocolate eggs wrapped in pastel-colored foil. If we were really lucky, we would receive a hollow chocolate bunny. Perfect for biting off the ears in one big bite. It was a chocolate lover’s dream come true.

One of my favorite Easter memories is shopping with my favorite aunt, Rena, who was my mama’s sister. The two of them were also best friends. I was the youngest of all the nieces. My Aunt Rena gave me a lot of attention, and I adored her for that. She began an Easter tradition when I was 4 or 5 years old. She would take me shopping each Spring for a new Easter purse. Of course, it would be white, the Spring color, and usually woven straw because that was our favorite. A couple of times, Aunt Rena also bought me a new pair of white patent leather shoes to wear with my Easter outfit. But it was those little purses that I remember with such fondness.

I would use my latest purse for the following year. I would carry it to school, church, really anywhere I went. Once I took my purse to the grocery store with my dad. For whatever reason, I sat it down and forgot it. When I realized what I had done, the purse was nowhere to be found. I was heartbroken. I cried for days. Those little white purses were so special to me. Part of it was my love of handbags, and the other was my love for Aunt Rena.

Not an Easter has passed that I haven’t remembered those times with my Aunt Rena. Along with the true story of Easter and my eternal love for Jesus, the memories I had as a child are some of my most important. Coloring eggs with my sister and then eating the boiled eggs the next morning till I was stuffed. Or the loving baskets my mama made sure we had, even if she didn’t have much money to buy candy to put in them.

So as another Spring and Easter holiday arrives, what are the memories you have? Is it a holiday that you hold dear to your heart? I would love to know your favorite memory.

Happy Easter & God Bless.