Holiday traditions tend to run deep but this is a tradition that may just have you rethinking what you do during the holiday season.
Ever since Thanksgiving 2000, Deb Mills has her family signed a white tablecloth with a permanent marker. She passes around the marker that is the same color every year. Each year has a unique color and everybody signs it. Over the winter, she embroiders each signature into the tablecloth.
“That makes it much more durable,” she tells ABC News.
As she looks at the tablecloth every year it gives her a reminder of family members who have passed away. Three years ago, Mills lost her daughter, Mary when she had an unexpected aneurysm rupture.
“We lost a daughter three years ago, and it is very special to be able to put that tablecloth on the table each Thanksgiving and there is Mary’s name and she’s among us. As well as my mother and my husband’s father,” Mills told ABC News.
"We started this tablecloth in 2000. It has the names of everyone we've shared Thanksgiving with each year. Each year is…
Posted by Love What Matters on Tuesday, November 15, 2016
There are many names that are worth remembering but others that people may want to forget. When the grandchildren invited dates, for example, their names ended up on the tablecloth. Now that they are no longer together, “we have gravy boats strategically placed for just that reason,” Mills said.
This is a family tradition that is truly unique. It serves as a reminder to the family that they are together on a special day.
Perhaps it’s time we consider a new family tradition as well.