Outside Looking In

Another Mother's Day has come and gone and I hope everyone got a chance to either spend some time with their mother, send her a card, or give her a call.
My mother passed away at a young age (64) due to a brain tumor and not a day goes by that I don't think about her. She was the best.
My parents, sister and I were a very close-knit family and would do anything for each other. I am the only one left now as my sister also passed away when she was 50 years old of the same brain tumor as my mother; as did my aunt (my mother's sister) at age 22.
My father died of a heart attack a few years after my mother passed away.
On Mother's Day, I used to give my mother the same gift every year from the time I was in high school until the year she passed - a bouquet of Stargazer Lillies - because that was her favorite flower. Every time I see that type of flower now it brings a tear to my eye.
Even though the four of us were a close family, for some reason we rarely said "I love you" to one another. We all knew it by our actions toward one another, but we just didn't say it very often.
When my mother was dying in the Sioux Falls Hospital, I asked everyone to leave the room so I could spend a moment alone with her. I walked up head resting on a pillow, leaned down and kissed her softly on the cheek. She hadn't spoken to me the entire time I was there that day visiting as her condition likely prevented it. After I kissed her, I held her hand, looked deep into her eyes and said "I love you". In a whispery voice, she said "I love you, too".
As she was being transported to the Tracy Hospital, where we all were going to meet for her final time on earth, she passed away so I never got to see her alive again.
But I've always felt comfort in being able to tell her how I felt about her.
Spend time with your mother as often as possible. She is a very important part of your life. Tell her you love her if that comes naturally to you. If not, make sure she knows it through your actions.

Where's Flurry?
When business owners went to work one morning last winter, they noticed a well-made three-foot snowman standing outside their front door.
The Mascot, as well as all of the other businesses in town, were each given one anonymously. But keeping a secret in a small town is a little like keeping a baby quiet in church. It was soon revealed that Kevin Jerzak, his wife and daughters constructed the cute snowmen out of maintenance-free deck posts and other maintenance-free materials and gave them away as gifts for Christmas and to cheer people up during the trying pandemic period.
When our office manager, LuAnn Fier, was entering the Mascot one morning a few months ago, she noticed the snowmen, whom I called "Flurry", wasn't in his usual place by the front door. When she went inside, she noticed it was nowhere to be found. So she emailed me to see if had put it away for the winter.
Nope, I told her. After checking everywhere, it was ruled that Flurry was kidnapped.
I waited patiently by the phone for the kidnappers to call and request a ransom for Flurry's return but we have not heard from them yet.
I only hope Flurry hasn't withered ... or weathered away. For all we know, he might just be a puddle now. And like his distant cousin, Frosty, all that might remain is his scarf, hat and corncob pipe in a small pool of melted plastic.
It's a shame that someone felt the need to steal a gift that someone spent their own time making in order to bring cheer to a downtrodden group trying to cope with COVID. It also seems odd that someone would walk up to the front door of a business on a well-lit street and take the chance to get caught stealing something.
If anyone is feeling guilty, please return Flurry to the Mascot's front door and no questions will be asked.
If any other businesses in town also had their snowman stolen or kidnapped, let me know. Maybe they all ran off together and headed north for the summer.

Prom photos
When I was in Minneota a couple times last week, I had several people ask why there weren't more prom photos in the paper. We had planned to include more prom photos (there were three photos on the front page), but ran out of room with additional late ads and a busy sports schedule.
We have included some more prom photos on the back page of this issue.