Banbury Cross

As Mother’s Day approached this year, I couldn’t help thinking about the gifts and cards Emma had given me over the years. No matter how busy she was she always made me a special card. She often made gifts for me and sometimes she and Sarah would flip through catalogs looking for the perfect gift and then see if Peter would help them buy it. When she was older and had her own money, she took great pride in picking out her own gift and buying it for me. No matter the shape or size, the gifts and cards always reflected great thought, affection and appreciation.


There are a few that really stand out for me, though. One is a card that Emma made me when she was in elementary school. On the cover was a line drawing of a little plant emerging from the ground and the words “I’m your sprout!” A few years later, she re-visited that theme with another Mother’s Day card. On the cover of that card was a line drawing of a blooming rose and the words, “Your little sprout has blossomed into a flower,” exactly what I was thinking every time I looked at her.


I will always treasure the gift she gave me last Mother’s Day. Emma was very busy at that time last year and I remember being so touched that she had taken the time to find me the perfect gift. It was a beautiful bracelet with stone hearts. She’d be able to tell me the kind of stone the hearts are made of, and I like knowing that. The bracelet reflects me and my tastes, but also speaks of Emma and her interests, tastes, and feelings for her family.


By far the most special Mother’s Day gift I was ever given was a recording made by Sarah and Emma about 3 years ago. The previous fall, both the girls had performed at Carnegie Hall with their children’s choir. At the concert they had done a premier performance of a piece written and arranged by Nick Page that was based on selected nursery rhymes. One movement of this piece had special meaning for me. It was based on the nursery rhyme Banbury Cross,  a rhyme that is a standard in my family. Every child and grandchild in our family has been bounced on the knee of a doting family member while this rhyme was chanted, and I bounced my own children on my knee to the rhythm of this rhyme more times than I can count. We have altered the rhyme a bit from the original to make the bouncing game a little more fun. My family’s version goes like this:


    Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross
    To see a fine lady upon a white horse.
    Rings on her finger and bells on her toes,
    She will have music wherever she goes.

    And this is the way the lady rides,
    A trottity, trottity, trottity, trot.
    And this is the way the gentleman rides,
    A canterty, canterty canterty, canter.
    And this is the way the farmer rides,
    A gallopy, gallopy gallopy, gallop  – whoa!


I would bounce the girls, first in a nice trotting rhythm, then in a speedier canter rhythm, and then in a wild galloping rhythm that would usually evoke lots of laughing and end with a gentle slide off the bucking knee horse.


So it was with that memory etched in their minds, that the girls made me my Mother’s Day recording. I’ve attached it so you can hear their beautiful voices for yourselves.
Click here for the link to the recording.  It will take a few seconds to load and then you'll have to click the play arrow.