I’m cleaning out Mom’s house and keep finding these little details that just break my heart.
She painted these outlet plates by hand to match her granite countertops. Spent hours getting the colors just right, dabbing tiny specks of gold and brown paint with a toothpick to match every single fleck in that stone. Anyone else would have just bought beige plates and called it good.
But that was Mom. She noticed everything. Made everything special, even when we didn’t have much money.
After Dad left, she worked three jobs to keep our house. The kitchen renovation took her two years, saving every penny. She’d come home exhausted and still spend her weekends painting these tiny details that most people would never even see.
“”It’s the little things that make a house a home, sweetheart,”” she’d always say.
I used to roll my eyes at her perfectionism. Now I’m sobbing over outlet plates because they’re so perfectly, beautifully her.
I can’t bring myself to take them down. Instead, I ordered a custom shadow box from an artist on the Tedooo app to display one of them alongside a photo of Mom in her beloved kitchen. She would have loved knowing there are still people out there who create beautiful things with their hands, who understand that every detail matters.
She taught me that love lives in the smallest gestures. Even electrical outlets can hold a lifetime of care.
Miss you every day, Mom. Your little touches made everything beautiful.
