Christmas · Family member · Heartfelt · about a minute
First Christmas Without Mom: A Toast (Heartfelt, 1 Minute)
The first Christmas after their mother died in the spring. Her dad asked her to say a few words at dinner, and wanted Mom mentioned, but didn't want the meal to turn into a funeral.
Given by Wren, the oldest daughter. 144 words. The names are made up.
The toast
Dad asked me to say something, so this is short, before I lose my nerve.
Mom shopped for Christmas all year. You all know this. She started in January, and by Easter there was a stack of wrapped presents in the hall closet, every one with a tag in her slanty handwriting, and we were all forbidden to open that door.
In October, Dad and I finally cleaned out that closet. Behind the vacuum there was one more present. The tag said, "To Tierney. Yes, another ice scraper. Love, Mom."
Tierney opened it this morning. It's the same blue ice scraper she gave him every Christmas for twenty years, because he never once cleared his windshield properly, and he complained about it every single time.
It's already in his car.
Please raise your glass. To Mom, who was always one Christmas ahead of us.
Why it works: One real object does all the remembering, so the speaker never has to describe the loss. Mom's joke on the tag lets the room laugh in the middle of the hard part, and the last line turns her habit into something to admire rather than mourn.
Make it yours
Borrow the shape, not the lines. Put your own people, your own year and your own detail in each spot, or answer a few questions and get a first draft built from them.