After the death of her mother, a woman found a 19-word note on a bright pink 3×3 Post-it that has helped her through the darkest times of the past fourteen years.
Blake Turck shared the heartwarming story of discovering her mother’s final message: a simple yet profound post-it with the timeless motto: ‘Life isn’t about waiting for the storms to pass… it’s about learning to dance in the rain.’
Turck found her mother’s note while rummaging through her belongings after she died when Turck was 29 years old.
“She wrote that message all those years ago, presumably as a reminder to stay positive and hopeful, and never intended for anyone to see it. That message became one of the greatest gifts she left me,” Turck said in the newspaper WashingtonPost.
After the death of her mother, a woman found a 19-word note on a bright pink 3×3 post-it that has helped her through the darkest times of the past fourteen years
Blake Turck shared the heartwarming story of discovering her mother’s final message – a simple yet profound post-it with the timeless motto: ‘Life isn’t about waiting for the storms to pass… it’s about learning to dance in the rain’
“She wrote that message all those years ago, presumably as a reminder to stay positive and hopeful, and never intended for anyone to see it. That message became one of the greatest gifts she left me,” Turck (pictured with her mother Deborah) said in the Washington Post.
“She will be gone for fourteen years on Mother’s Day, and as the Post-it continues to fade, my bond with her grows deeper and deeper.”
“In smaller moments of anxiety, or when I’m terrified of the future, its presence urges me to be present and pause for gratitude. I hear her voice say those simple, still clichéd words, telling me that it will be okay. And I believe it.’
Turck’s story began in the emergency room, when she received the disturbing call that her mother had collapsed.
Upon arrival, she received the devastating news of her mother’s metastatic cancer. Three days later, her mother died, leaving Turck to deal with the aftermath.
Amid the clutter of her mother’s New York apartment, Turck said she found comfort in the remains of her life.
She found unexpected solace in the treasure trove of her mother’s belongings, but it was a small pink Post-it note, tucked into her mother’s 2010 planner, that resonated the most.
Turck spoke of the depth of her mother’s struggles and triumphs – marked by loss, illness and unwavering positivity.
“My mother had a tendency to use long-winded paragraphs in her writing that, while motivating, today could also be called toxic positivity,” she wrote.
From childhood to adulthood, her mother’s words of encouragement provided peace in moments of darkness (Turck and her mother in Vermont in 1982)
In the years that followed her mother’s death, Turck (photo) had to face her own battle. The Post-it served as a beacon of hope
“I recognize the irony that the most clichéd phrase of all – one typically relegated to refrigerator magnets – had become my most cherished of all its platitudes. I once took them for granted, but in their absence I clung to them like a lifeline.”
‘I wasn’t the type to hang clichés around the house, but the Post-it was different. It was the last of the statements.”
But from childhood to adulthood, her mother’s words of encouragement provided peace in moments of darkness.
“Over time, its literal placement in my life changed. After I first found it, I put it in my own paper planner (like mother, like daughter),” Turck wrote. “I carried her words in every new planner and initiated each one by sticking the Post-it on the back page. Whenever I got anxious or sad, I went there.”
Eventually it moved to the mirror above the dresser in my bedroom, where it remained. The bright color that once stood out has faded – now a mottled mix of pale shades. The sticky backing lost its strength, and now a small, transparent piece of tape holds it to the left corner of my mirror.
As Mother’s Day approaches, Turck reflected on the legacy of her mother’s final message of resilience and the hope that light can be found even in the darkest of times – and in this case it came in the form of a simple pink post – it notes
Turck and her mother on the night of her prom (1998)
In the years that followed her mother’s death, Turck found herself navigating her own struggles.
“Before her untimely death, I had never experienced a great tragedy,” Turck wrote. ‘Eight years after I discovered the Post-it, I lost a baby when I was five months pregnant. My grief continued with even more loss and failure over the next five years. During infertility, the Post-it was a touchstone for my mother’s strength as she faced her own difficult days.”
But the Post-it note became a beacon of hope and a tangible connection to her mother’s strength and love.
‘Every time, the nineteen-word mantra radiates a calm optimism. One that carried me through some of the darkest times, when I most needed my mother’s love or support,” she wrote.
As Mother’s Day approaches, Turck reflected on the legacy of her mother’s final message of resilience and the hope that even in the darkest of times, light can be found – and in this case it came in the form of a simple pink post-it note.