Yet my admiration for the class and elegance my mother displays as easily as breathing did not end with her perfume bottles (although I did learn that my water trick was fooling no one). No, I began to realize growing up that my mother possessed something I rarely see these days, and that is good taste. My mother has impeccable taste for interior design, her clothing, and food. She can transform a modest house into a cozy cottage, a shirt into an outfit, a holiday dinner into an event. Her Thanksgiving dinner? Renowned. Martha would put her spatula down out of sheer respect. Her flair for picking something as simple as a faucet has contractors shaking their heads because they can't believe that the room they thought would never come together is actually way more beautiful than they ever realized it could be. Most people see something for what it is, but my mother sees it for what it can be.
I often watch in awe because I am as far from elegant as it gets. I say this not to be self-deprecating, but simply because it's true. I live in sweats and a ponytail. It took me days to notice that I managed to take off part of my toenail, leaving one of my toes looking haggard. Make-up? What is that? I wear the same ratty shoes everywhere, and I have been carrying a brown purse with black clothing for several weeks now. Style? Not so much. Haute? I had to look that one up in the dictionary.
Yet the thing that makes my mother the most classy, elegant, and respectable woman I know has nothing to do with how she cooks, dresses, or designs a kitchen. It's the fact that she takes care of her family no matter what personal sacrifice she has to make. The fact that she is respected by all that know her. Her generosity even when selfishness would be acceptable. How she roots for the underdog and asks for people to buy a chicken for the underprivileged for her birthday instead of giving gifts. The level of class and generosity she shows the world on any given day makes me proud to be her daughter, and in this way, I hope I can be even close to how elegant she is.
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