May Baskets

 NPR called May baskets a "forgotten tradition."  No one at NPR ever met Robin.

In the very simplest of terms, a May basket is a basket of "goodies."  Think, Little Red Riding Hood's basket.  You fill a few of these up, and hang them on your neighbors' doors early in the morning of May 1st.  If you had a secret crush, this was a perfect time to be daring and take a chance on getting caught leaving a present.

This used to be done all over the country.  Not so much anymore.  But Robin, with generosity oozing out of her pores, loved any opportunity to give gifts.  And she loved the impish spirit of doing it anonymously.  She'd spend all of April gathering up inexpensive goodies and filling the May Day baskets, often to overflowing.  The night before, or early that morning, she'd send me and the kids out to drop them off all over whatever neighborhood we happened to be living in.

I always regarded this with patient tolerance.  Okay, sometimes I wasn't so patient, especially on days when work took up more than its share of my time.  Now, I look upon every one of her traditions with a fondness that crosses over into desperate longing.  Because now, I think I understand.

It was always enough for me to love her, and to love the kids.  But she had so much more love in her heart than that.  She had to send little gifts into the world, at least once in a while.  

They say that grief is just love with nowhere to go.  There are 24 houses in my neighborhood.  That's a few places, anyway.

Happy May Day.