I’ve already written a few posts about my mom’s smaller gestures and habits, but I’m back to this topic today — and likely will be again and again and again. Why? That’s my mom for you — regularly going out of her way to commit small but meaningful deeds that quickly added up to make a person feel extremely special and loved.

I’m fortunate to be one of those people. My mom did countless little (and of course, big — but that’s not the focus today) things to make me feel special and loved. In this post I want to briefly share with you one of my favorites.

Several years ago, my mom started using these creme drapes we must’ve had lying around as covers for our family room couches. She wanted to protect the high-quality fabric from stains and spills (we probably had my dad’s messy eating to blame for that!).

The thing is, I hated these drapes. And I made this very clear to my mom.

Sure, I understood the functional value of the drapes — we had these beautiful couches that got easily stained and it was important to maintain them. But as I always questioned my mom, what was the point of having nice sofas if we just kept them covered up all the time with ugly drapes? Okay, the sofas might get stained — but at least we could see them that way, right?

Unfortunately I didn’t win that battle with her, but my mom had no intention of making me feel like a sore loser.

When it was time, I moved out of our home for college, leaving the dreaded couch drapes behind. But I would come back every so often to visit. One time, I came home and didn’t see any drapes on the couch. My mom had taken them off deliberately ahead of my arrival. For the visits that followed, this became the regular pattern: I’d walk into the family room and see she had yet again removed the drapes for me. This was just one small way of her welcoming me back home.

She remembered each and every time I visited — whether I was coming home from LA or the UK, after a few weeks or a few months — and every time I would walk through the door and exclaim with appreciation. As you might be able to figure out, it wasn’t actually about the drapes. It was how loved I felt by my mom investing this thought and effort just to make me incrementally happier about something as silly and insignificant as drapes on a couch.

We have lost so much without my mom being here with us, but what we will never lose is her impact or the way she made and continues to make us feel. Now, when I go away for trips and return to the house, my dad or Nikhil ever so thoughtfully remove the drapes before I get back. They know that’s what my mom did for me.

And as a result, every time I walk through that door and into the family room, I still feel so loved by her.