A Diamond and My Mother

Blogs are wonderful to preserve and communicate our thoughts. In this case, I needed to share some beautiful words with the world, which were written by a 15-year old girl in the Why Mom Deserves a Diamond® contest. Out of thousands of essays that were submitted to me in 1995, a sixth-grade boy was selected, very deservingly, as the Grand Prize Diamond Winner. The girl received a runners-up gemstone for her efforts, but I don’t think I communicated the fact that she was in that final pile of two essays that competed for the diamond prize. After all, there was only one grand prizewinner.

I remember the grief of having to choose one essay over the other, and I may have flipped a coin. From that year forward, I have always awarded two diamonds in the contest. There is now a winner in an elementary grade category and also a winner from middle to high school.

I suppose now is always better than later, and I would hereby like to give credit, eighteen years later, to Lauren O’Hara’s timeless contribution for her mother. I hope Lauren and her mother will be able to read this once again. Your words will live forever.

A diamond and my mother
Are two of the same
Diamonds all around her
Sparkle in her name

For never has there been
A dark and starless night
For with the shining
Of my mother’s eyes
From darkness comes light

Dew on morning rose
Diamonds in the sky
Kind words when a new day starts
All these things I see in her
The diamond of my heart

Lauren O’Hara
Grade 9. 1995 Sapphire Winner