Thank you to Kristi and Mary for sharing their stories. Both of these ladies are very special to me. Kristi has become one of my biggest supporters and is the sweetest woman you can meet not to mention a true beauty 🙂 Mary and I go way back to junior high. I was lucky enough to spend alot of time with both her and her mother especially on one very fun vacation to Alabama! I can attest that her mother is trully beautiful and is one lady that I have never forgotten.

Mary

I remember my mother as being a bit of a hippie when I was a young child. I don’t remember her spending more than 5 minutes putting make-up on, or spending time putting outfits together, or obsessing over how her hair looked before she went into public. I actually can only remember her owning 2 pairs of shoes at that time, a white pair of knock-off Keds and a pair of flip-flops. And yet, I remember thinking how beautiful she was and how I wanted to be just like her when I grew up. Then, at the beginning of my teen years, she took a job at a cosmetic counter of all places. I remember her asking me for my magazines so she could get tips on how to put make-up on and even had me showing her how I did it. She became a natural over the years at both selling and applying cosmetics. Throughout high school my friends and I would take full advantage of the free makeovers for our school dances, and then as we got older, for their weddings too. Yet still, even as I saw my mom embrace this new world of aesthetic merchandising, I still always thought she was such a beautiful woman no matter what and how lucky I was to even resemble her.

Now at 30, I realize exactly why my mother was always so beautiful no matter what she did and why she continues to be even more so to this day, and that is because she exudes it from within. Her heart is bigger than the universe and her love fills it to the brim. Everyone that knows her or has known her can’t help but to fall in love with her. My mother taught me by example that whether you exude beauty naturally or you do the things that all of us women do to ourselves to portray that beauty that we all have and feel from within, it is the heart of a woman that is truly beautiful. Thank you Mama for teaching and showing me by example the true meaning of beauty, I will be a lucky girl to become half the truly beautiful woman that you are.

Kristi

I have been blessed in this life to have the love and support of both my beautiful mom and her mother, my grandma. They both taught me and still teach me daily about true beauty.
From my mom I have learned most importantly to be kind and considerate to others, which really makes a person beautiful from the inside out. As far as physical appearances, she taught me the art of shopping LONG ago! We would drive 3 hours just to go “school shopping,” (my small home town had and still has no mall to speak of!) We had to make our trips count and she taught me the fine art of “mixing and matching,” wearing, for example, one nice sweater in a variety of ways, from casual to more dressy…a skill I have to this day.

Her mom, my grandmother has always been one of my most favorite people in the world. Ironically, we lost her yesterday so when Michelle asked me to write a few paragraphs about Mother’s Day and beauty, I had to include my grandmother. She taught me to always wear a smile, which is the best accessory ever. She also taught be to love others and never hold a grudge against anyone, true beauty. I miss you Grandma and flying to Seattle in just a few hours and not having you there waiting for me just makes me miss you even more.