The Ultimate Mother's Day Story

This mother's day, we left out at 6:30 am to visit my mom's grave and to say a special prayer for her. As our usual custom, we clean her grave area, clear away plant/grass/leaf debris, and plant new flowers. We went to three-four different stores until we found one, Albertson, that was open so early on a Sunday morning, a holiday at that. We bought some flowers, a potted hanging plant and some pretty sunflowers which her favorite. We arrived at the cemetery. It was a really nice morning, the kind of morning she loved working out in her garden in, cool, misty and peaceful.

The welcome committee :)

Meet the mama bird.

We were greeted by two birds tweeting away on her grave. (My youngest sister has always been afraid of birds since her very young years when she got chased down by a bunch of chickens hungry for some food she had :D She was the first to notice the birds and begged us to get rid of them before she got out the car. Of course I had to decline since I didn't think mama would approve, so she sat in the car most of the time we were there.)

Mama bird trying to scare us off

Daddy bird also trying to charge and scare us off

I was touched the little birds were keeping her company on such a thoughtful day and so early in the morning. In Malaysia, mama loved it when birds visited her garden. But as we got out and approached the grave, the mama bird got really nervous and started squaking at us really loud. The closer we got, the more aggitated and aggressive she became protecting her ground nest. Another bird, I'm assuming was the daddy bird, was running around in circles squaking as well. We decided to quickly put the flowers down and move away from the grave so that the mother would relax. She got scared and ran off as we put the flower pot and sunflowers but stayed very close tweeting. They tried to scare us away by charging at us and showing their firey orange tail feathers.

The flowers.

Once we were done, we prayed and backed away. But for some reason they would not return to the nest. We moved our car further away and waited to see if they'd return. Still, they were hesitant to return to the nest. Then my sister thought that the hanging plant might be scaring them, after all, the hook did look like a larger bird neck and head! So we went back and she took the hanging plant away.

The nest.

At first she was just going to remove the hanger from the plant and replace it but the mama bird slowly began to inch her way back to her nest the minute the hanging plant was gone. So, we decided to bring it home with us but left the sunflowers on mama's grave. It was the most sweetest thing ever! It felt like reaffirmation of the wonderful, loving, caring person my mama was during her life, the legacy she left behind that continues on in her memory. My mama was the person everyone turned to for guidance, help, protection, education, reassurance, love, encouragement, knowledge and wisdom and tuna tacos. :) It is no wonder this cute bird family chose her place of rest as a nesting ground for their future legacy despite the fact that there is not much in the way of foliage protection that most birds use to guard their nest.

Today was the ultimate mother's day memory since the last mother's day we shared with my mom before she passed away. I love and miss her very much. She will always be in my heart, a treasure that can never be taken away or lost.