Memorable and Treasured Gifts

Submitted by Alan:
I have no question as to what my best gift was. As a child, I was totally untouched by death. None of my friends, no relatives, no neighbors, no one that I really knew had passed. While in college, my grandfather died suddenly of a heart attack. After the funeral, I spent several days with my grandmother. During that time we went through the old photo albums and I selected a photo of my grandfather as a young man all dressed up. I took the picture with me when I returned to college and had the photo restored along with color added to it. I found an antique shadow box frame to display the picture. The restored photo in its frame was wrapped and placed under the tree for my mother. I am not sure how it happened but it turned out that it was the last present to be unwrapped on Christmas morning. My mother opened it and burst into tears. After all, it was her first Christmas without her father. It was truly the perfect gift.